THE BEGGAR WHO DANCED IN CHURCH
ACTS 3:1-26
NASB
1 Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the [a]ninth hour, the hour of prayer. 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 [a]alms of those who were entering the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. 4 But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” 5 And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 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!” 7 And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. 8[a]With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God; 10 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.
11 While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called [a]portico of Solomon, full of amazement. 12 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His [a]servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. 14 But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 but put to death the [a]Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. 16 And on the basis of faith in His name, it is [a]the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
17 “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. 18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His [a]Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the [a]Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the [a]period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. 22 Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET [a]LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. 23 And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. 25 It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God [a]made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ 26 For you first, God raised up His [a]Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”
3:1 [a]I.e. 3 p.m. 3:2 [a]Or a gift of charity 3:8 [a]Lit Leaping up 3:11 [a]Or colonnade 3:13 [a]Or Son 3:15 [a]Or Author 3:16 [a]Lit His name 3:18 [a]Or Anointed One; i.e. Messiah 3:20 [a]Or Anointed One; i.e. Messiah 3:21 [a]Lit periods, times 3:22 [a]Or as He raised up me 3:25 [a]Lit covenanted 3:26 [a]Or Son
NLT
1 Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock prayer service. 2 As they approached the Temple, a man lame from birth was being carried in. Each day he was put beside the Temple gate, the one called the Beautiful Gate, so he could beg from the people going into the Temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for some money.
4 Peter and John looked at him intently, and Peter said, “Look at us!” 5 The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting some money. 6 But Peter said, “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene,[*] get up and[*] walk!”
7 Then Peter took the lame man by the right hand and helped him up. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankles were instantly healed and strengthened. 8 He jumped up, stood on his feet, and began to walk! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.
9 All the people saw him walking and heard him praising God. 10 When they realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at the Beautiful Gate, they were absolutely astounded! 11 They all rushed out in amazement to Solomon’s Colonnade, where the man was holding tightly to Peter and John.
12 Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? 13 For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob —the God of all our ancestors —who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. 14 You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!
16 “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed —and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.
17 “Friends,[*] I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. 18 But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah —that he must suffer these things. 19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. 20 Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. 21 For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people. Listen carefully to everything he tells you.’[*] 23 Then Moses said, ‘Anyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from God’s people.’[*]
24 “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. 25 You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants[*] all the families on earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.”
[3:6a] Or Jesus Christ of Nazareth. [3:6b] Some manuscripts do not include get up and. [3:17] Greek Brothers. [3:22] Deut 18:15. [3:23] Deut 18:19; Lev 23:29. [3:25] Greek your seed; see Gen 12:3; 22:18.
Everyone has faced adversity, some more than others; all of us have encountered difficulties that have challenged our faith and tested our limits. We can overcome some adversities and disadvantages with hard work; we dig deep and find a strength we didn’t know we had. Some struggles require creativity, forcing a change in perspective that helps us survive the adversity and even thrive like never before. There are, however, some adversities that no amount of work or creativity can overcome; nothing short of an act of God will suffice.
Acts 3 is a story about adversity. Or, more precisely, about the power of God to turn adversity into opportunity. Luke chose to fast-forward through church history several weeks or months to focus on a remarkable incident in the temple, not only because of the extraordinary events themselves, but to introduce a major theme for this section of Acts (1:1–7:60). The next crucial months would bring the leaders of the growing church face to face with insurmountable difficulties, challenges for which no amount of work, creativity, money, or fortitude could suffice. Beginning with this story of a man disabled from birth, Luke reveals the power of God to overcome any adversity, and —more importantly —how every difficulty, when given to God, becomes His means of accomplishing His sovereign will and perfect plan.
As God’s power becomes evident in tackling the adversities in the lives of believers, those nearby have a fresh opportunity to turn to God as well. In the present passage, we’ll see this as Peter preaches on the heels of God’s healing of the disabled man.
— 3:1-2 —
The “ninth hour” (3:1) refers to the ninth hour of daylight. This would have been about three o’ clock in the afternoon by our reckoning and marked a time that the Jews had set aside as one of three times for prayer in the temple: 9:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., and 3:00 p.m. (cf. 10:9, 30; Ps. 55:17; Dan. 6:10; 9:21). Peter and John, two of the Twelve, went to the temple to join other devout Jews in prayer. On their way, they encountered a man who had been disabled since birth. We will later discover that the problem existed in his feet and ankles (Acts 3:7), which apparently had not developed properly. Everywhere the man went, someone had to carry him. He never knew the joy of standing erect, to say nothing of walking or running, abilities most of us take for granted. He never knew a healthy day. He never knew a day that his legs were not as limp as a dishrag —no feeling, no movement, nothing but the prospect of another day begging for alms.
He was “being carried along” (3:2), which suggests his friends were moving toward the temple along with Peter, John, and scores of other devout Jews. Luke describes the man as one “whom they used to set down every day,” quite probably because many first-century Jewish Christians remembered the man. For as long as history records, right up to today, it has been the custom of disabled people to line roads leading to a temple or shrine in the hope of receiving compassion in the form of money. How long had he occupied his customary place “at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful”? His friends placed him there daily, but we don’t know how long this had been his regular spot. If it was a year, Jesus must have seen him on more than one occasion.
“Beautiful Gate” was a colloquial name, not an official one, so we can’t determine exactly which entrance Luke had in mind. The temple was a massive complex, covering more than 35 acres according to some calculations,[29] and arranged in a series of nested courts, each surrounded by a wall and accessed through gates. Anyone, Jew or Gentile, could visit the public areas of the temple, entering the complex through any one of several doors.
Courts of the Temple in Jerusalem. Besides the eastern gate, two other gates offer strong possibilities for the location of the healing of the crippled man: the Corinthian Gate, through which only Jewish men and women could pass, and the Nicanor Gate, through which only Jewish men could enter. Josephus stated that the gate separating Jews from Gentiles “was of Corinthian brass, and greatly excelled those that were only covered over with silver and gold.”[30] No doubt, the crippled man had the best opportunity to receive alms from the greatest number of Jews while sitting at the Corinthian Gate.
— 3:3-5 —
Regardless of where he normally sat, it appears from the narrative that the disabled man and the apostles encountered one another outside the temple complex, among the throngs of people coming for evening prayer. Luke presents the scene with a subtle hint of happenstance, as though their encounter occurred at random. Of course, his literary irony points to the greater truth that God had ordained their meeting.
The man asked Peter and John for money, perhaps while scanning the crowd for other prospects. Anyone who regularly walks through the downtown area of a large city knows that eye contact with a panhandler amounts to an invitation for begging, so most people avert their eyes. Peter, however, saw opportunity rather than potential nuisance. He locked eyes with the man and commanded his full attention.
— 3:6-7 —
The disabled man expected a touchable, tangible answer to his most immediate need: money for food, clothing, and shelter. Quite reasonably, he didn’t expect a solution to his deeper problem, the inability to use his feet. Peter spoke for both John and himself, saying what the man heard dozens of times each day: “We don’t have any money . . .”
What a cruel statement —apart from the rest of the sentence! Peter’s declaration illustrates the mind-set of the church and should serve as a guide for all Christian service. You can’t give what you don’t have, but you do have something —so give that! In this case, Peter and John knew they had received supernatural power through the Holy Spirit, and guided by the Spirit, they felt prompted to heal the man. “In the name of Jesus Christ” (3:6) declares the authority by which Peter was able to perform this miracle. Not in his own power, but by the power of Jesus Christ, he took the man by his begging hand and lifted him to his feet (3:7).
The details of Luke’s description are important. Peter “seiz[ed] him by the right hand,” the hand extended for alms. He “raised him up,” pulling the man upward. “Immediately,” not over time, not gradually —no physical therapy sessions required —immediately, a surge of life filled a formerly dead part of the body. His feet and his ankles became normal. The phrase “were strengthened” is a divine passive, implying that God accomplished the miracle —just in time to support the man’s body weight.
— 3:8-10 —
We later learn that the man was more than forty years old (4:22). As a child, he could only watch his friends run, leap, and play. As a Jew, he would have been stigmatized as a recipient of divine punishment for his wrongdoing in the womb or as retribution for his parents’ sin (cf. Ps. 51:5; Luke 13:2; John 9:2). As a crippled man, he was shunned from the inner courts where other Jewish men found a warm welcome, and he did not have the opportunity to work,[31] a key factor of identity for men.
So it should not surprise us that when he suddenly found himself standing on his own two feet, he did first what he could never do before. He walked, leaped, and undoubtedly ran!
To the phrase “entered the temple” (Acts 3:8), Luke adds three participles. The man didn’t merely enter; he was walking, springing, and praising God, and he drew the attention of “all the people,” that is, everyone arriving for prayer. They immediately recognized him as a fixture of the temple, the beggar man everyone knew. According to Luke, they were filled with wonder (thambos [2285]) and amazement (ekstasis [1611]). Today, we might say they were “blown away.”
— 3:11-12 —
The “portico of Solomon” (3:11) was a long, colonnaded area running the length of the eastern side of the temple complex. Covered by a roof, it had become a common place for congregations to hear teaching (John 10:23; Acts 5:12). As Peter, John, and the ecstatic beggar entered through the eastern gate, people already inside the temple rushed over to see what had happened. Seeing the disabled man completely healed and dancing around the courtyard filled them with “amazement.”
Peter recognized this as another opportunity to preach. In fact, that may have been his intention from the beginning. Regardless, it was clearly God’s plan to turn the man’s disability into an opportunity for His witnesses to fulfill their mandate. Peter began his message the same way as on the Day of Pentecost, by addressing the “Men of Israel” (3:12; cf. 2:22). He did not intend to omit women but rather to establish himself as one of their kindred. And before going any further, he deflected credit for the healing away from himself and John, giving God all the glory for the beggar’s healing: “Why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” (3:12).
A model of the Herodian temple complex in Jerusalem viewed from the northeast corner, looking to the southwest. The portico of Solomon appears in the upper left of this photo.
— 3:13-15 —
Peter continued his sermon by interpreting the miraculous sign for all those present. Peter named “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” to distinguish Him as the God of the Hebrew Scriptures and God of their covenant and went on to declare the power at work in this miraculous healing: God had “glorified His servant Jesus” —that is, vindicated Him as the Messiah through resurrection. Peter boldly reminded the people in the temple that they had participated in the murder of their Messiah by asking for Barabbas when Pilate gave them the opportunity to release Jesus (3:13; see Matt. 27:20; Mark 15:11; Luke 23:18). To drive the point home, Peter called Jesus by three different titles that identify Him as both the Messiah and God:
- “His servant” recalls the title given to the Messiah in several of Isaiah’s songs about the “Suffering Servant” who dies on behalf of His people (Acts 3:13; see Isa. 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50:1-11; 52:13–53:12).
- “The Holy and Righteous One” points to the Messiah (Acts 3:14; see Ps. 16:10; Mark 1:24; Luke 1:35; 4:34; John 6:69) and in the Old Testament was used only of God (2 Kgs. 19:22; Job 6:10; Ps. 71:22; Isa. 1:4; 60:9, 14; Jer. 51:5; Ezek. 39:7; Hos. 11:9, 12; Hab. 1:12; 3:3) or His supernatural creatures (Deut. 33:3; Job 5:1; 15:15; Ps. 89:5; Dan. 4:17, 23).
- “The Prince of life” (Acts 3:15) is the term archēgos [747], which referred to the hero of a city, that is, its founder and ruler. It also carried the idea of an originator. The original Greek city-states didn’t have kings like other civilizations; they emerged from obscurity when a leader with a vision originated a new administrative idea and then rallied people behind him. He was, therefore, the founder and first example of his new way. The “archēgos of life” has established a new city called life and reigns as its king.
Just as he did in his sermon at Pentecost, Peter indicts the people for murdering their Messiah and then declares His resurrection. This would undoubtedly frighten those who believed Peter’s message.
— 3:16-21 —
Peter’s call for repentance looks very similar to the sermon at Pentecost, which should not surprise us. Everything occurred by the foreknowledge and plan of God. The Messiah had to suffer in fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. He was raised from the dead and offers forgiveness to those who repent. We see an interesting difference at one point, however. While he had declared that Jesus was “exalted to the right hand of God” in the earlier sermon (2:33), this time Peter emphasizes His end-time return, implying that Jesus sits by the right hand of the Father now but will return to earth in the future to fulfill all the Old Testament promises of God’s kingdom on earth (3:19-21).
Peter calls for repentance, not only for the sake of the people’s personal salvation, but to hasten the return of Christ. Note how he characterizes the unfolding of God’s plan: “Repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that”: (1) “times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [now],” and (2) “[God] may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you” (3:19-20).
Furthermore, Christ will remain above until “the period of restoration of all things” (3:21). This refers to the time when Christ restores the world to the order God first created in Genesis (Rom. 8:20-21), a world without sin, disease, disabilities, suffering, disasters, or death. It refers to the Messiah’s physical reign on earth, the literal establishment of His kingdom.
— 3:22-26 —
Peter briefly reminded the audience of their prophetic heritage, beginning with their human founder, Moses. All the prophets pointed to the same Messiah and declared the penalty for rejecting or disobeying this Prophet-King (3:22-25a). Peter also reminded them that God had chosen them to inherit the covenant He had established with Abraham and that through repentance, the Messiah —Jesus —would make them worthy of the blessings God had promised their patriarch (3:25b-26).
Peter preached this sermon to all the people in the temple, but let us not forget the man most impacted that day, the man who had been healed. After receiving the use of his feet for the first time, he heard about the grace of God, the mercy offered him through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and the forgiveness of sins made possible through repentance.
Who knows what happened to that formerly disabled man? Scripture says nothing more about him. He could have become a prominent figure in the growing Jerusalem church. We do know that God used the man’s adversity to further His agenda —a pattern that will repeat several times in the next few chapters, beginning in Acts 4:1.
APPLICATION: ACTS 3:1-26
Time to Dance
I am intrigued that the disabled beggar had been lying at the gate called Beautiful long enough for everyone to know him, probably long enough to have been there during Jesus’ ministry on earth. We don’t know for certain the man was around when Jesus visited the temple, but to me it seems like a strong possibility. Yet Jesus never healed him. It seems that, like the blind man of John 9:1-3, the man’s healing awaited a foreordained time when God’s work would be manifest in a new way.
When Peter and John healed the man, it set off a remarkable chain of events, beginning with Peter’s second great sermon. As we’ll discover in later chapters, this healing became a pivotal moment in the history of the church, triggering events that would not have occurred otherwise. So, the disabled man lay at the intersection of the world’s affliction and God’s design for the future, waiting for Peter and John to turn his adversity into an occasion for rejoicing; he lay waiting for the preordained moment when the apostles would “happen by” and then do as they had been commanded —make disciples.
I see two principles at work in this passage, each with an implied response.
First, your impossibility is God’s opportunity; turn to Him. The disabled beggar couldn’t work to overcome his adversity, and creativity would do nothing to help. He needed help beyond the realm of human ability. He needed God to do what no one else could do. He had no way of knowing what his day would bring at the beginning of his pilgrimage that morning when the sun rose and friends carried him to the temple. He sought nothing more from the day than a few coins to keep him fed, clothed, and sheltered. But God had something supernatural —something personally wonderful —planned.
The man’s impossible circumstances had always been God’s opportunity to accomplish His plan. While we don’t know the precise cause of the man’s disability, we do know that the Lord had given the man’s affliction a divine purpose before anything had been created. The same is true of your adversities.
I’m not suggesting that you will get what you want or that you will receive a miraculous reversal of misfortune like this man. I know too many wonderful people who have gone bald from chemotherapy or who hobble through life with physical challenges or who are confined to wheelchairs. I never want to presume upon God’s sovereign design and make promises I have no business making. But I can say that God will not ignore you. Rather, He will do what is best for you and everyone connected with you. Therefore, turn to Him. Tell Him what you desire, but leave your expectations behind. Surrender to His will, accept His way, and trust His timing.
He will hear, and He will respond as He chooses; that’s His sovereign right.
Second, God’s mercy is your opportunity; return to Him. The Lord used the disabled man’s healing and his joyful dance around the temple to give Peter an opportunity to preach. Peter then proclaimed a message for first-century Jews —and for people of all races throughout all time. It’s a message of mercy, inviting all who have sinned to repent, turn toward God, and receive forgiveness.
Take this opportunity if you have not already. When you do, it will be your turn to dance.