In the name of Jesus Christ
Acts 3:1-10 · Vern Peterman · Mar 5, 2017
Acts (2017-18), No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492655013063

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We are going to proceed into this passage that Wayne just read for us. The book of Acts, chapter 3, verses 1 through 10. But just to kind of give ourselves some perspective, we're going to start in the beginning. Not that beginning. This one. Acts chapter 2 is the beginning of the church. It is the Pentecost. We say Acts chapter 2, starting about 9 a.m. on, to be specific, May 24, 33 A.D. I just happen to be a stickler for details, right? So that 9 a.m., May 24, 33 A.D., if you had told Peter that, hey, that was the day and that was the time, he'd have looked at you and gone, huh? You know, because he wouldn't have any idea. But in our way of referring to things, That was the day and the time. And it's just because I'm a stickler for details. You know, just for example, Nancy and I have been married 15,810 days today.

Okay. So anyway, so we have the beginning of the church, the body of Christ. That's the beginning we're talking about. The Holy Spirit was given to everyone who believed. About 3,000 people were saved in that one day. We're going to see that number exceeded in this day that we're looking at here.

So this one day after beginning an interaction among the believers, which is summarized in just one brief but insightful verse, as a matter of fact, the last part of chapter 2, but particularly Acts 2.42, they were continually devoting themselves, beginning and following that day, to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship and to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And everything was focused at that time around the city of Jerusalem.

So Dr. Luke's summary statement, however, still relevant to us, Acts 2.42, speaks to us in this way. The apostles' teaching ultimately grew into the completed New Testament.

Now, that being said, can you imagine what it would have been like to sit down and having a meal with Peter or any of the apostles and to have them telling you what it was like to walk with the Lord? You imagine having the disciples and asking them, tell me, what were you feeling on the day that the Lord fed 5,000 people and you picked up the leftover pieces, right? And to have them describe that firsthand. I mean, that really must have been something life-changing even to hear that account. You can imagine asking Thomas, Thomas, How did you feel the week you didn't believe that Christ was crucified and all the other disciples did?

And Thomas gets a little uncomfortable and clears his throat and then tells you how he felt or moves on. OK, or here's fellowship, here's spiritual sharing and partnership and interaction and joint participation with those who had walked and talked with the Lord, who had seen him crucified. had seen where He was buried, but had also seen where He was resurrected from, and to walk with Him as our resurrected Lord, and seen Him ascend.

The breaking of bread. We're going to do that now. Breaking of bread is an expression that comes up in the book of Acts. It's an expression for sharing a meal together. And by the way, why always the breaking of bread? It was considered rude to offer a partial piece of bread, so you began the meal always with breaking of bread to begin the meal, right? And you didn't have forks and spoons and knives. You broke the bread and used the bread to scoop up everything else that you were going to eat.

Finally, prayer, communication with God the Father. Of course, there was a lot to pray about. As churches were, the church was just beginning, a lot of things were just to be established, and things to turn over to the Lord, and to ask the Lord for wisdom and guidance. There was the Old Testament, but nothing of the New Testament yet present. And so there was looking, Lord, how do you want this to operate now that things are very different from the way things were just even days ago and weeks ago?

So here we are in Acts 3, 1 through 10. We had seen a summary statement here of the many signs and wonders. This is Acts 2, 43. They were taking place through the apostles. And so we'd seen, you know, that summary statement. They were doing many, right? Well, what we're going to see here in Acts 3, 1 through 10, this is a single instance among the many. So I think that's a part of the perspective that we're to have.

We're going to look at a particular instance, realizing that this was part of the many things that the apostles were doing that were signs and wonders. So we're going to get a glimpse at one of these many instances where the apostles are doing the signs and wonders.

It's likely that what Dr. Luke describes here in Acts 3, 1-10 took place sometime after the events summarized in Acts 2.43. By the time that Acts 3, 1-10 takes place, it is probably about summer of 33 AD, so probably at least a month has gone by, possibly a few months has gone by since the church began and since the Apostles began doing signs and wonders before this particular time took place.

So here's Acts 3.1 to begin our passage.

So Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. So this ninth hour, the Temple of Jerusalem had a pattern of what they called the ninth and etc. So that ninth hour prayer was three o'clock p.m. according to our time nomenclature and so three o'clock in the afternoon it was in fact about the third prayer time customarily for the Jews and so the other typical prayer times for the Jews were 9 a.m. and noon and you'll see a pattern of those other times or the three o'clock time Further in the book of Acts, including one we've already seen with the day of Pentecost, as well as other books and some examples are given in a couple chapters there in Daniel. So the pattern nine, noon, and three was typical of Jews. So this was the last of the three.

It was this time when Peter and John were going up to the temple. And one of the things we note here, especially in the early chapters of Acts, but actually even continuing past the middle and past even when Paul was there, the Apostles, when ministering among the Jews, continued to observe traditional Jewish customs and traditions. including coming to the temple at these traditional prayer times.

Why would they do that? They were later to learn that they're not under the law, and yet you find even the Apostle Paul seeking to abide by that. Why? The reason is in order to have continuing ministry with the Jews and not offend them, for Jews to abide by at least the superficial aspects, even though they're not depending upon the law for their righteousness.

So here's Peter and John. Think about Peter and John. They had been through a lot together. I mean, it's really astounding to even ponder it. From the beginning of Christ's ministry, here they were both fishermen, by every knowledge that we have. Here's Peter and Andrew, brothers, fishermen in the north part of the Sea of Galilee. You have John, also his brother James, also fishermen in the north part of the Sea of Galilee. So they had that in common, which they actually maintained in common up until at least after the time of the resurrection.

And other things as well, simply being disciples. And the Lord oftentimes selected the two of them, often with John's brother James, to see and do things together. Imagine, here's Peter and James and John when they saw the Lord at the Mount of Transfiguration. along with Moses and Elijah, and that must have been just an astounding experience.

Peter, of course, has to say something, as he often does, and does say something here. Here is Peter who volunteers to go out walk on the water with the Lord and of course as he gets out there he starts looking down and woo this is water and it's deep and those are really waves underneath my feet right and here's John looking on and so you can imagine their kind of memories and recollections of that day. It was John that got Peter into the courtyard of the high priest where Peter I would say very much with John watching on. Peter denies the Lord multiple times and says, oh, I don't even know him, right? So they remember that. It's John that got him in the gate.

It was Peter and John that ran to the empty tomb. As a matter of fact, when they got there, they witnessed that, yes, it was empty. They didn't seem to really understand what it meant. But they did that together. You can imagine what thoughts were going through their mind. And they shared that time of running together, where the two of them ran to that empty tomb and trying to figure out, what is this? What does it mean?

Imagine Peter and John were there when Thomas, after a week of not listening to the other ten disciples, Thomas saw the Lord. Can you imagine Peter and John seeing the expression on Thomas' face? These guys were telling me the truth. Wow! Can you imagine Peter and John were both there on the Sea of Galilee when the Lord said, Boys, that's the way He put it, have you got any fermented fish paste?

That's what he asked him. And then he said, you've been fishing all night? Eh, just go ahead and put the net on the other side of the boat. And they caught so many fish, and John actually kept track of exactly how many fish they caught. Peter said, enough with this fish stuff. He dove in and went to see the Lord on the shore.

Can you imagine? Very memorable moments. Moments that they would never forget. So here's Peter and John. had been made apostles by our Lord. They were there for resurrection testimony. We were witnesses to His resurrected life. And having been given, in this instance, special giftedness. So both of these men had changed radically from the time that they walked with the Lord in His earthly ministry. Even they had changed radically in recent months up to this moment. We're about to see how radical a change that was.

Here's Peter. The one who said, nah, I don't even know Him. No, absolutely not. I don't even know Him. Curse, curse, curse. Acts 3, 2, And 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. Okay. So one is we notice this was lame as a birth defect.

And one of the things we gather from Acts 4.22, this man had been lame from birth for more than forty years. So this man was somewhere in his middle to mid-forties probably. He had and could put on his resume lots of experience in begging for alms. This guy was good. When it came to begging for alms, this guy was an expert. None better.

The usual Jewish way of evaluating someone, of course, who had some sort of a defect, disease, anything, was who sinned. And, of course, in this instance, he was born with this defect and they would put the blame on his parents. There doesn't appear to be anything of that in this passage.

And so it was often the custom that family and friends would carry someone who was lame or had some other defect to places where they could beg, or as we see elsewhere, to the Pool of Bethesda, where there was a hope of being healed, whether it was a rather useless hope or not. But there was also an arrangement to pick them up, leave them there for hours, and then pick them up at the end of the day, even on a Sabbath that was permissible, to carry them there. Now, if you were healed, then you couldn't pick up your bed, but nonetheless it was rather conflicted. So the men had been carrying this lame man along to where he could beg for decades.

They were very practiced at it. They may have even taken shifts. Okay, we know that Uncle Shlomo here, we know that Uncle Shlomo here needs to be taken to the temple to beg, and so among the family members and friends will take shifts, right? And somebody might say, you know, I did that for two decades and I'm getting too old and tired for this. You guys do it. You know, I can imagine those kind of discussions. So after years of trial and error, this man found the best begging spots. And this happened to be a very good one, as we see.

This is the gate that Acts 3 says is the beautiful gate. Problem. We have no outside record of any indications as to which gate was the beautiful gate. Further problem. Many of the gates were beautiful, right? So that makes it difficult. There are lots of best guesses. I think some of them are almost certainly wrong as to which gate was beautiful. The word for temple here means the outer courtyard. So it is unlikely that some of the gates in the inner temple with a different word for temple are included in that. Dr. Lane Rittmeyer, we've mentioned his name before going through Luke.

He's a Bible-believing archaeologist. He happens to be also an archaeological architect. That is, he does reconstructions of what things were like. He is probably the world's foremost expert, or at very least among the world's foremost experts, on the archaeology in and around the Temple Mount and Old City Jerusalem. He believes, and he puts together a good case, that this is the double gate on the south end of the Temple Mount.

And so with that being the case, it comes out at what's called the Huldah Gates in the Temple Courtyard. So you have here on page two of your handout this map that we've handed out previously. And it marks there the places where Jesus had healed people in and around Jerusalem, even including one that we highlight here, Jesus healed the blind and the lame in the temple. We're going to come back to that because, wait a minute, if He healed the blind and the lame in the temple, and this guy's been here for 40 years begging, why didn't Jesus heal him?

Hmm. We'll get there. What this would look like, here is a kind of an overview of the temple from a viewpoint at the southeast, looking northwest towards the temple area. So you'll see at the very top of it, here's the Fortress Antonia. By the way, I don't expect you to read that very tiny writing. If you do, that's very good, but I'm not expecting it. Okay, and then you see that the middle of the courtyard here is the temple proper, again with a different name for the temple.

This is where the sacrifices are done. This is where they would gather people together. The women were allowed in that court that's shown over on the east side. And that's also where the offering was given, for example, for the widow who would give her mite, would give the mite in that area. Those who would sound the trumpet, the trumpet is thought to be a funnel-shaped entry into the offering, would sound there.

But it's here at the south end that would be the double gates. And Dr. Rittmeyer, like I say, makes a good case for those double gates with a large stairway in front of it being the place where this man would gather. By the way, if the man was there at the entry, that would also offer him shade and protection from rain and any inclement weather, wind. So that was also a good place because people would go there to sort of retreat from the extremes of weather. They would come out after that tunnel at what's known as the Holda Gate, so the double gate would be specifically that entry gate, because the other one was called the triple gate, and then at this Holda Gate, so specifically that one. Here are the stairs that lead up to the double gate. So those stairs are still there. So Peter and John, if Dr. Rittmeyer is correct, and I believe he is, would have walked up these very stairs to go up to the double gate.

Once inside the tunnel that is still there and has remained significantly, not entirely, significantly unchanged from the time that Peter and John were there. This is the way the tunnel looks now as it's been preserved. So it's still there. The Romans didn't destroy this tunnel.

Here's looking up inside the ceiling. Now much of the decoration on the ceiling after 1900 plus years is not what it once was, but this gives you an idea from architectural reconstructions what the ceiling domes looked like inside that tunnel. Isn't that something?

So it would have been indeed beautiful. It's not to say that the other gates weren't beautiful, but this would be the beauty of the inside of these things. Don't stand here and stare upwards. That's a good way to get dizzy. Here would be another reconstruction.

This was done at the request of the Israel Antiquities Authority at UCLA, where they took the archaeological and architectural information and made a computer model of what that would have been like walking inside those tunnels. Here is where it comes out in the Huldah Gates. This comes out into the courtyard. This would have been the courtyard where the money changers would do their money changing. This would have been where they kept the animals, everything from cages full of doves to the goats and even the bulls here, once one came out through those gates.

Here's Acts 3.3, when he saw Peter and John going about into the temple, he began asking to receive alms.

So here's this lame man. He knows he's got a signal. And he's a lame guy. He does have a sight, however that may be. So he's seeing these guys coming. Probably hears them as well. And so as they're coming, he's getting his appeal for alms ready. Right? He's getting ready because this is what you've got to do every day. Okay, somebody's coming. They're getting close enough they can hear me. Alms, alms, alms. Right? And start letting them know.

He was expecting that Peter and John to be like all the rest of the observant Jews that he'd seen for decades of time, who lived there or were visiting, either one, doesn't matter, who had come into that area, that tunnel, and he was hoping they would give him alms that day, like the many, many of days before.

Here's Acts 3, 4, but Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, Look at us! So, fix his gaze is a translation of just one Greek word. Interestingly, except for a couple instances, only in 2 Corinthians 3, where the Israelites could not fix their gaze on Moses because of the brightness of his face, having seen the Lord. That's the only exception. All the other occurrences are by Dr. Luke, either in the Gospel of Luke in a couple cases, or multiple times, actually, in the Book of Acts. And so as we go through the book of Acts, we're going to keep seeing this one word show up and every time it gets fixed his gaze or some similar translation. Now, so there's not only fixed his gaze, there's also the other part of it, the command from Peter is look at us.

Now, typically what would happen is the beggar wouldn't necessarily even look at the people that he was expecting money from, and very often the people who were giving money wouldn't necessarily even look at the person, they'd just throw some money in the jar or whatever.

So a lot of times it was rather impersonal. Peter's not taking that approach at all. As a matter of fact, there's several things about what Peter does and says and the way he does things that are very atypical. It wasn't the usual impersonal, here's some money for your jar and I'll walk on.

In sharp contrast, Peter, with John right alongside him, told the lame beggar, look at us. That's an imperative. You must look at us. Hey, you, look at us. Command form. So this wasn't going to be a typical almsgiving time where we stay impersonal, we don't meet eyes, you drop the money in the jar, I'm hoping, and then move on. It wasn't going to be like that at all. Contrary to that typical impersonal interaction and the alms giving as it was between them, Peter, along with John, did not intend to give this lame man any money, none at all. So what was the lame man's expectation?

Alms, please. Right? What was Peter going to do? Not any of that at all. None. In that sense, he was going to disappoint the man. Was the man going to be disappointed? No. All right, so Peter very much intended to heal this lame man right then out of his giftedness and his authority as an apostle. It would be done in order to glorify the Lord. As a matter of fact, the focus wouldn't be on Peter and John.

Here's Acts 3.5, "...and he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them."

So you get the insight into, he responds, you know, yes, I'm going to look at you. But why? He's expecting, oh, these guys are most certainly going to give me some money, right? That's his expectation. Up to this point, he's not expecting anything different. He's saying this is a very good sign that they're going to give me money. That's all he's thinking.

So the layman responded to Peter's order to look at Peter and at John. He started, he began to give them his attention as Peter had asked him to, or commanded him to. This was in response to Peter 1, fixing his gaze on the man. By the way, you ever need to have your gaze fixed? Me too. Anyway, as well as Peter's order for the man to look at both of them. So there was Peter looking at him, And I'm sure John at the same time too, but also Peter saying, look at us. So let's really make personal contact here. So Dr. Luke here is spelling out what this looks like. This man will not at all receive what he's expecting. He is going to have Peter focus his attention on him. Peter has said, look at us.

And he's thinking, hey, I'm really going to get some alms from these guys, right? But that's not what's going to happen. He's going to instead receive what will radically and permanently change his expectations for the rest of his life. All of what he has been doing for decades is about to end. All of his expectations, I'm going to need to have some guys, friends and family members, take me to this place to beg. And I'm going to beg and I'm going to pick a good spot and I'm going to do my best at begging. All that's going to go away. So, this man won't receive what he's expecting.

So here's Acts 3.6, but 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. So I don't have what you're expecting. So Peter tells the man very directly, he does not have what he's expecting. Silver and gold, that's what you want, right? Not doing that today. Not happening. Peter and John have no alms to give to him. That is not what he was wanting to hear.

Then why did we go through this? Well, here's why. What Peter does have to give to the man is a gift far greater than any had received from anyone during decades of begging for alms. the healing of the lame man would end his need to beg for alms. What would he put on his resume? I've got 40 years of experience begging for alms, right? How's that going to help? As a matter of fact, Nancy was asking, what's he going to do next, right? What skills does he have?

Anyway, so what Peter says next is not about himself and not about John either. He didn't say, hi, I'm Peter, and boy, have I got something for you. This guy here with me is John, and between the two of us, I mean, we're really going to dazzle you. Don't even mention their names. Doesn't even introduce himself. But the person that you need to be introduced to, that's the name I'm going to give. Was Peter name-dropping?

Well, certainly more than that. He was giving credit to the Lord and doing it in the name of the Lord. We're going to talk about that. Peter says, in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene. So he commanded the man to walk in the authority of and in the power of Jesus Christ the Nazarene. This is different from just doing magic where you mention magic names. By the way, that was common in those days where people would mention names. Paul even writes about it in Ephesians 1, the name that is above all those names that you drop. Christ, the name that's above all the names because you don't have to name those other names because we're saying the one name that matters, Christ. Peter didn't mention himself or John or who he was. He didn't even introduce himself from any evidence that we have. So who is this? Jesus Christ the Nazarene? What would that tell him? One, Jesus.

The Savior who died was buried and rose again just a few months ago, and less than 2,000 feet from where we are right now. As a matter of fact, since you're healed of being lame, we could take a walk right now. You could take a walk for the first time in your life, and we could walk a very short distance, less than 2,000 feet, to where Christ was crucified and buried and rose again, all for you. We could do that.

So this Jesus Christ the Nazarene is also the long-promised Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one, the one who is to come to establish his kingdom on this earth. So when he said Jesus Christ, it would mean Savior, it would mean he's the Messiah, and he conveyed that. It would say also, just in case you're wondering specifically, this is the one who was raised in the Galilean town of Nazareth before Jesus began his earthly ministry.

Here's Acts 3.7, And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up, and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. So by the right hand, he grabbed him by the right hand and lifted him up.

That may or may not be hugely significant. But interestingly enough, Peter didn't say, I'm going to touch you and heal you. He said, walk and I'm going to help you stand. But that's not to heal you. The healing was done right that instant when Peter said, walk. Peter sees the man's right hand, and in this case, to help the formerly lame man to stand up and prepare to walk for the first time in his entire 40 plus years of life on this earth. Now think about this. It's apparent from this verse that the feet and ankles of this man were the root cause of his having been lame, but no more.

The healing was done not on the basis of Peter's medical insights, Peter didn't sit there and examine this, oh, this tendon here is going to have to be strengthened, and this bone here, we got a defect, and you're going to have to fix that, and this cartilage that's in it. No, none of that. There was no medical analysis. Dr. Luke might have been able to do that, but certainly not Peter. Peter would have looked at his ankle and said, boy, that sure doesn't look like a fish. Imagine walking for the first time at more than 40 years of age. Now, we in our culture, and it's certainly understandable, make note of baby's first steps.

How many of you remember your first steps? Me neither. About the earliest thing I remember is about two, and it certainly wasn't walking. But anyway, yeah, probably none of us remembers that. But this man remembered his first steps. Can you imagine that? He remembered what you and I probably don't remember. He remembered his first steps. Because why? Because he was in his forties. He remembered the first time he walked. And it was quite a day. A memorable day at that.

Acts 3.8, with a leap he stood upright and began to walk. And he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. Wow.

So it's apparent from this verse that the healing that was done that day and that moment was not just a physical restoration of the lame man's feet and ankles. Instead, this man was instantly able to attain to adult senses of balance and coordination. In this movie they have him, you know, Jumping on the stairs. I'm not sure if that took place or whether it was on level place, but nonetheless to Immediately go from I haven't walked for my entire life To walking and leaping and then not you know killing yourself on the landing especially on stairs if that was how it happened That would be something. So not only was he physically restored, but he also had restored in his personal memory and history the ability to walk and leap, without killing himself, and to do that right away. So this is astounding. It isn't just a physical restoration. It also gave this man a history and coordination and skills that he didn't have. He had that miraculously. Isn't that something?

So the Lord not only healed his feet and ankles, but the Lord did a healing in his head to be able to have those skills instantly at that moment. The man by whom the Lord had healed by the command of Peter and John then entered the temple, that would have been the temple courtyard, and was walking and leaping and praising God as he was with Peter and John. Okay, so here's this man walking and leaping and praising the Lord. And Peter and John, I'm sure, are, you know, enthusiastically in support of what this man's doing, but not probably walking and leaping right along with him.

Can you imagine what people were thinking? Whoa, I remember that guy. Maybe even remember his name. I've seen that guy for years. He sits there in that tunnel. And every time I go in that tunnel entry, here's this guy. And here he is walking and leaping. He was begging. Wow. It was not typical for people to enter the courtyard leaping.

Likely that many recognized him then as the lame man. As a matter of fact, we have from the subsequent verses that yes, in fact, they did recognize him. So Peter and John conducted themselves in such a way that the formerly lame man was not thanking Peter and John, but who was he thanking? Praising God. As a matter of fact, we still don't have any evidence that Peter and John introduced themselves. They possibly did, but that wasn't the focus, was it?

This man praised God. I have no idea why AMD installer just jumped up. Okay, we'll tell it to go away. Thank you. Okay, so this is a good indicator of a valid ministry here that is done by the life of Christ as a work of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord is praised and credited for the outcome rather than any man.

One of the hazards that we have in our high media era is that there can be too much focus on one man. We even have instances where we know some pastor or public teacher, and we know the pastor's name, we may not even know the church where he's at. And by the way, can you name the other elders at that church?

Often not. So we have a hazard, if you will, that the focus is very easily on one man and elevating that man to some level that God never intended. But that wasn't happening here. Not even Peter and John get the focus. Peter and John are the ones who say, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Nazarene, rise up and walk.

Acts 3.9, And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

I've taken these pictures from the movie where they show a few people. I think rather that it was a large number of people, as a matter of fact we're going to see evidence in next week's passage, we're talking thousands of people, okay? Not just a few standing by. And probably not down in this tunnel, double gate tunnel, but out in the temple courtyard.

So, all the people saw the formerly lame man walking and praising God, and very likely they saw him leaping too. It says there, this man had been at the entrance to the temple, probably this one, the double gate, for decades. Many had seen him begging. Particularly those who lived in Jerusalem would come through this gate. Those who lived in the south or southwest part of the city would come through this double gate. those coming from the southwest from farther away would come often through this gate.

So these people who saw the formerly lame man walking and leaping and praising God were actually very likely quite familiar with him and would be stunned to see him walking and leaping. Here's Acts 3, 9, and 10, and all the people saw him walking and praising God, and 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.

So did people in general recognize this guy? Oh, this is the beggar who is now healed and is now walking and leaping. And the answer is yes, they did. And verse 10 is telling us exactly that. We know who this guy is and what we're seeing is just amazing because we know that this guy has been begging as a lame man for decades. May even have been those who said, I grew up with this guy begging.

Here looking at the temple, as we pointed out before, this would have been the double gates, as Dr. Rittmeyer makes the case, where they would have entered. This would have been the hold gate at that portion of the temple. At the south end, where they would have come out into the temple courtyard, from there, we're going to find out in next week's passage, there they went over to Solomon's portico. There was a colonnade there, and so they went over there. So they went across the temple courtyard to Solomon's portico, where a great many people gathered, and that's where Christ gathered Himself. at that portico in order for Peter to speak to people.

We're going to see the number saved that day is 5,000. How many were saved on the day of Pentecost? Some weeks or perhaps months before? About 3,000. This number is now going to be exceeded. 5,000 are going to be saved. So the small number of people in the tunnel that's pictured in the movie is not quite correct.

But what we see here instead is this portico. So verse 10 makes it quite clear that the people not only saw the man who had been formerly lame and walking and praising God, they also recognized him. That guy is the formerly lame beggar that we saw before. It's even clear that this formerly lame man had been the very one who regularly sat at the beautiful gate day after day for years. I would even say for decades. Now he was totally and completely healed.

We've got to check this out. It says explicitly, they were filled with wonder and amazement. Have you ever had something that's been slightly wondering, had you slightly wondering, slightly amazed? And if that's the case, then you might have just said, well that's cool, and just walked on. This one, they got to check it out. And it says they weren't slightly wondering and slightly amazed. It said they were filled with wonder and amazement. It took over them. It overwhelmed them. It grabbed their attention. They said, we've got to check this out and we're going to see that. That filled with wonder and amazement about what happened to him.

That happened is in the perfect tense, which is we talked about in the previous elective here. That's a completed action, completely done. It has ongoing results in the future of implying permanence. So their wonder and amazement was not just partial, not just incidental. They were filled with it. They were all deeply impacted by what they saw.

So we have a question. Jesus had gone in there. We've shown you on a map on page 2 that Jesus had gone in and healed the blind and the lame. Why did Jesus not heal this lame man? He certainly must have gone by him perhaps even a number of times and walked right by. Why didn't Jesus heal that man? Could it be Christ did not heal this man or even offered to do so, he was leaving the opportunity open for Peter and John to heal this lame man there in the summer of 33 AD.

The apostles had the gift of healing. Now that meant that Peter could come up and say in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. He didn't say, as we probably ought to say today, Lord, you can heal. You can heal. Would you heal this person? And the Lord can. We even prayed for people with medical issues here this morning, the missionaries, right? We can ask for healing. We don't have the ability, it would be audacious for us to do so, to do as Peter did, in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. So the apostles had these supernatural gifts. They were gifts including healing that were given to the apostles. In our own era, God can heal. That's not the same as the gift of healing in which I can command a healing to be taking place. One of the necessary qualifications of an apostle, and we won't go through all of them here, was just to point out they were endowed with power to perform signs, wonders, and miracles.

And this is evidence of that very fact. We're going to see the apostles heal other lame people. In fact, after this, two more. And they're in Acts 9 and also in Acts 14. These are signs and wonders given to the apostles. They were able to perform these validating signs and wonders. So what happens here is Peter, given this miracle, doesn't just walk away and say, wasn't that nice thing we did for that guy? He takes advantage of it as an evangelistic opportunity. It validates his message and ministry. They were also signs more often done among the Jews, as we'll see as we go through the Book of Acts. Question, can God do miracles today? Yes, God can do miracles today.

Nancy and I have seen that personally. My grandmother was a missionary to the cannibals in Fiji. That's too many stories to tell this morning. and also on the island of Hawaii. There in Hawaii, as I've talked about before, there was a lady named Hattie Makaukau of Hawaii. Her two daughters were with her.

Her husband had already been sent to the Leper Island and was never coming back. Never, in fact, did come back. Hattie came into church that day as an unbeliever, brought her daughters, and she became a believer. that day, having listened to the parable of the ten lepers, and she said, can I be healed of my leprosy? She had white gloves on her fingers to cover up the fact that she had leprosy because she didn't want to be taken away from her two daughters. Who will take care of my daughters if I'm sent away to the leper island?

So the people, my grandmother and those gathered with her, prayed for Hattie after she became a believer and prayed for her. Her hands had gotten leprosy down to here. They were healed and the fingers grew back, which is an extraordinary event. So here she is with her daughters with her fingers grown back. Can the Lord heal? Yes. Is the Lord compelled to heal? Must He heal at our command?

Is that gift available today? No. There is also an open door to opportunity John and Peter that day And the formerly lame man are going to head from the double gates there to Solomon's portico It's the colonnade on the east side of the temple courtyard There that day after they've gone across the courtyard and people have seen Witness here's this man walking and leaping and praising God.

They're going to seen that they have seen this man who they know is had been a layman, now healed. And there Peter will speak to the Jews gathered there. He is going to have, as we'll see next Sunday, a potent evangelistic message, resulting in about 5,000 being saved that day. And then Peter and John will be arrested. And let's ask this.

Was 5,000 being saved that day a good thing? Yep. Was Peter and John being arrested a good thing? Yep. So that's what we're going to take a look at next time. So I think that means several things for us. One, sometimes the bad things that are happening, like with this lame man, are so that God can provide an opportunity of some kind. And that's important for us to recognize.

Both 5,000 being saved and Peter and John being arrested are consistent with God's will and God's character. God is not sending a mixed message with 5,000 being saved and Peter and John being arrested as a mixed message. Both of those are consistent with God's will. And so both of those are lessons that we can learn from here and we'll take a look at next week when the meeting takes place there in Solomon's portico, we know where that was, and Peter speaks a message, and Peter's not the center of it.

Christ is. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you've spelled out here. What a wonderful, wonderful example we have in this lame man. What a profound change that made in his life. But as we see and will see, what a profound change will take place in the lives of thousands of others. And we thank you for that. We thank you for the lessons here. We thank you for the lessons yet to come. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.