Healing Spurs the Growth of the Church
Acts 3:1–4:4
In Acts 1:8 Jesus promises that, after receiving the Holy Spirit, the apostles would become his witnesses. Three elements of the Church’s witness in Jerusalem stand out: first, ministry to the sick and the poor (Acts 3:1–10); second, preaching God’s gift of salvation in Jesus (3:11–26); and third, faithfulness in the midst of persecution (4:1–4).
Peter Healing a Crippled Beggar (3:1–10)
1Now Peter and John were going up to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer. 2And a man crippled from birth was carried and placed at the gate of the temple called “the Beautiful Gate” every day to beg for alms from the people who entered the temple. 3When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms. 4But Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5He paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. 6Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk.” 7Then Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles grew strong. 8He leaped up, stood, and walked around, and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping and praising God. 9When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10they recognized him as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.
OT: Isa 35:6; Mal 3:20
NT: Matt 11:5; Mark 16:17–18; Luke 5:23–25
Catechism: Christ the physician, 1503–5; healing the sick, 1506–10; wonder and praise, 2640
Lectionary: Vigil of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29); Wednesday of the Octave of Easter
[3:1]
Although Peter and John are mentioned together (as throughout Acts 3–4), the focus is on Peter as spokesperson. Peter does all the talking and acting. John’s silent presence here is probably mentioned to emphasize that there is a second witness to all that occurs. Jesus used to send out his disciples in pairs (Luke 10:1).
The apostles go to the temple area for the three o’clock hour of prayer (literally, at the ninth hour), the time of the daily evening sacrifice (Exod 29:38–39; Dan 9:21). Jesus’ first disciples did not abandon their Jewish religious practices but continued to live as observant Jews.
[3:2–5]
They met a man crippled from birth at one of the temple gates, the Beautiful Gate, who was placed there daily to beg for alms. The location of the Beautiful Gate is uncertain, but it may have led from the outer court of the Gentiles into the inner temple courts. Luke accents the contrast between the lame man, who is carried and placed at the gate and the people who entered the temple. The man is outside the temple not simply because he is lame but also because he is a social outcast. If he were of a priestly family, his disability would have excluded him from the priesthood (see Lev 21:16–18) and perhaps even from the temple.
The beggar asks Peter and John to give him alms. Luke reports that Peter looked intently at him, then somewhat awkwardly adds, as did John, to remind readers of John’s presence. By saying, “Look at us,” Peter invites the lame man to expectant faith.
[3:6]
First, Peter disappoints the beggar’s hope for money from him: “I have neither silver nor gold.” Immediately, however, he offers him something immeasurably better: “but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, [rise and] walk.” Peter’s words and actions echo those of Jesus in his healing of the paralytic: “Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?” (Luke 5:23). Peter speaks of the ability to bring about the beggar’s cure as something in his possession or under his influence: “what I do have.” Yet the command to be healed is spoken in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean. Throughout Scripture, those who ministered or prophesied “in the name of the Lord” did so as the Lord’s authorized representatives (Deut 18:5; 1 Sam 17:45; Jer 26:9). To act “in the name of Jesus” means to act under his authority, united to him, invoking his presence and power. Thus this healing confirms the impression given at the beginning of Acts that Jesus would continue to speak and act through his disciples, and especially his apostles (Acts 1:1 refers to all that Jesus began to do and teach in his earthly ministry).
[3:7–8]
The healing is an instantaneous strengthening of the lame man’s feet and ankles as Peter raised him up. Here and in verse 6 the verb for “raised” (Greek egeirō) is the same word used for Jesus’ resurrection (Luke 24:34), hinting that the same Holy Spirit by whom Jesus was raised from the dead now raises up the lame man. Luke graphically accents the healed man’s joy and excitement: he leaped up, stood, and walked around. The man’s exhilaration is unmistakable as he goes into the temple with Peter and John, walking and jumping and praising God. His excitement is even more understandable because now he is entering the temple as part of the worshiping community instead of begging at the gate. For those who witness it, the healing is a sign that the messianic age has arrived, as God had promised: “Then the lame shall leap like a stag” (Isa 35:6); “for you who fear my name, the sun of justice / will arise with healing in its wings; / And you will go out leaping like calves from the stall” (Mal 3:20).
[3:9–10]
Although all the people refers directly to witnesses in the temple, it may also emphasize that those who wondered at the healing were Jews, to whom Acts frequently refers as “the people” (of God). They recognized the man walking and praising God in the temple as the one who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the temple but who had been unable to enter it. Their response was amazement and astonishment at his healing and his presence in God’s house, the typical human response to seeing a mighty work of God (Luke 4:36; 5:9, 26).
Reflection and Application (3:1–10)
Throughout Acts, the proclamation of the good news is accompanied by healings and miracles done in the name of Jesus, who has divine power to do what is humanly impossible. During his earthly ministry, Jesus instructed his apostles “to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal” the sick (Luke 9:2). Although miraculous healings are not necessary to faith, they play the important role of visibly manifesting the reality of the kingdom. They are signs demonstrating the truth of the gospel message: that God loves all people; that Jesus has won the victory over sin, sickness, and death; that he has come to heal and save. They thus dispose people’s hearts to believe in the Lord Jesus, who is being proclaimed to them. Healings are also a foreshadowing of our ultimate salvation: being raised up, body and soul, to eternal life with God.
Some theologians, even some Church Fathers, have thought that miracles belonged primarily to the apostolic age. But miracles have continued to be a part of the Church’s growth and life in every age, as illustrated especially in the lives of saints throughout Church history. Today the process of canonization—formally declaring a holy person to be a saint—requires evidence of miraculous healings through the saint’s intercession. Besides these healings, evaluated according to strict criteria, there are many more ordinary examples of the Lord’s healing people at shrines like Lourdes, in informal healing services, through the prayers of ordinary people, or through the Sacrament of the Sick. The world today has no less need of God’s healing power than the first-century world in which the apostles preached.
Christian concern for the sick goes far beyond miraculous healings. Not only Jesus but also Peter and the other apostles showed compassion and tender care for the persons they healed. The Church shows compassion for the sick not only by praying for their healing but also by using natural means to ameliorate their condition through its many medical ministries.
Peter’s Sermon Explaining the Healing (3:11–26)
11As he clung to Peter and John, all the people hurried in amazement toward them in the portico called “Solomon’s Portico.” 12When Peter saw this, he addressed the people, “You Israelites, why are you amazed at this, and why do you look so intently at us as if we had made him walk by our own power or piety? 13The God of Abraham, [the God] of Isaac, and [the God] of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and denied in Pilate’s presence, when he had decided to release him. 14You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. 16And by faith in his name, this man, whom you see and know, his name has made strong, and the faith that comes through it has given him this perfect health, in the presence of all of you. 17Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did; 18but God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away, 20and that the Lord may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus, 21whom heaven must receive until the times of universal restoration of which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old. 22For Moses said:
‘A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen;
to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you.
23Everyone who does not listen to that prophet
will be cut off from the people.’
24Moreover, all the prophets who spoke, from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days. 25You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, ‘In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26For you first, God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
OT: Deut 18:15–19; Isa 52:13–53:12
NT: Matt 21:33–46; Rom 9–11
Catechism: culpability for Jesus’ death, 591, 597–98; Jesus’ death in God’s plan, 599–601; the name of Jesus, 430–35, 2666; Jesus’ second coming, 673–74; the Church and Jews, 839–40
Lectionary: Acts 3:13–15, 17–19: Third Sunday of Easter (Year B); Acts 3:11–26: Thursday of the Octave of Easter
[3:11]
Luke emphasizes people’s positive reaction to the miracle worked by Jesus’ followers: all the people rushed in amazement toward the healed man, who was clinging to Peter and John. Solomon’s Portico was a roofed colonnade that ran along the eastern wall of the temple complex. This colonnade was a favorite setting for Jesus to gather with his disciples (John 10:23), and it continued to be a gathering place for the early Church (Acts 5:12).
[3:12]
Peter addresses the people as you Israelites. Use of their biblical name emphasizes their status as God’s chosen people and descendants of Jacob, through whom God’s promises to Abraham are being fulfilled. Peter reproaches them for staring at him and John as if the healing had occurred by their own power or piety (like Paul in Acts 14:15). They should not focus on the human instruments through whom God healed but on God himself, who declared in Exodus, “I am the LORD who heals you” (Exod 15:26).
[3:13]
With the phrase the God of our ancestors, Peter emphasizes his shared Jewish identity with his listeners. The expression underscores the continuity between God’s present action through the apostles and his former deeds for his people in the Old Testament. The God who is acting through the apostles is the God of Abraham, [the God] of Isaac, and [the God] of Jacob (see Luke 13:28; 20:37; Acts 7:32), who revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush (Exod 3:15). The same God who made promises to the patriarchs of Israel—the only God—continues to act through Jesus his Son.
Fig. 4. Diagram of the temple showing the probable location of the Beautiful Gate, where the crippled man was healed (Acts 3:1–10).
This healing is a sign that God has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you, his Jewish compatriots, had rejected before Pilate (see John 1:11). Though “servant” can also be translated “child,” here it alludes to Isaiah’s prophecies of the Suffering Servant, who would suffer for the sins of the people but be glorified by God (Isa 52:13–53:12; Acts 8:32–35).
[3:14–15]
Peter calls Jesus the Righteous One, a title used by the centurion at the cross who recognized Jesus’ innocence (Luke 23:47). In sharp contrast, the listeners had a murderer, Barabbas, released (Luke 23:18–19) and killed the author of life. The word for “author” can mean that Jesus is the cause or originator of life (see John 1:1–4) or that he is the pioneer or leader of life, inasmuch as he is the first to rise to life after death (see Col 1:18). Although the Jews who clamored for Jesus’ crucifixion chose death over life, God reversed their decision and raised him from the dead, of which the apostles are witnesses.
[3:16]
Peter concludes his explanation of the healing of this man, whom you see and know, by declaring that it was done by the power contained in the name of Jesus, before whom all other powers give way (Eph 1:21; Phil 2:9–11). Biblically, a name represents the presence and power of the person named. As Old Testament priests blessed the people by invoking God’s name over them (Num 6:27), Jesus’ disciples healed the sick by invoking Jesus’ name over them. His name has made the man strong.
It was faith in the name of Jesus that produced the man’s perfect health (or “soundness in all parts of the body,” which would also entail ritual cleanness), in the presence of numerous witnesses. This statement underscores the importance of faith in Jesus for healing, as frequently emphasized by Jesus (Luke 7:50; 8:48; 17:19; 18:42). Although there was no mention of the lame man’s faith before his healing, his obedience to Peter’s command (Acts 3:6–8) implies faith in what Peter said. A word spoken with confident faith in the name of Jesus, like Peter’s command to the lame man to “rise and walk,” has power to stir up faith in others.
[3:17]
Peter mentions the ignorance in which the Jerusalem Jews acted during Jesus’ passion, as Jesus had prayed on the cross, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). But he implies that now the stakes are higher, since they can no longer claim ignorance. There is greater culpability for those who continue to reject Jesus after hearing the apostolic testimony that he has been raised from the dead. At the Areopagus in Athens, Paul later declares that “God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent” (Acts 17:30).
[3:18]
Peter proclaims that God used their ignorant actions to bring to fulfillment all that he had announced beforehand, thus accomplishing his saving plan revealed in Scripture (see Luke 24:26, 46; Acts 17:3; 26:22–23). Peter does not specify particular Scripture passages foretelling that the Messiah would suffer, but he is probably alluding to Isaiah’s prophecies of the Suffering Servant and the Psalms of David in which the psalmist cries out to God in his innocent suffering.
The scandal of the Messiah’s being crucified initially prevented Paul and other Jews from accepting Jesus as Messiah. In New Testament times, death by crucifixion was considered to be proof that the victim was cursed by God, since the law of Moses stated that “anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse” (Deut 21:23 NRSV). How could the Messiah be cursed by God? Only later did Paul come to understand that it was God’s plan for the Messiah to suffer, as Jesus himself foretold, and that Jesus willingly took upon himself the curse of the law so that we could be freed from it. “Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Gal 3:13).
[3:19–21]
Like his Pentecost speech (Acts 2:38), Peter’s sermon here concludes with a call for his listeners to repent and be converted and a promise that your sins may be wiped away. To the pledge of forgiveness is added the further promise that the Lord God would grant times of refreshment or relief—probably referring to the spiritual refreshment that comes from the Holy Spirit. The messianic age, or “last days” (Acts 2:17), has begun but will only be fully accomplished on the ultimate “great and splendid day of the Lord” (Act 2:20), when Jesus returns in power from heaven. Then will be the times of universal restoration, an †apocalyptic expression for God’s end-time renewal of creation (see Gen 1:31), which has been spoiled by human sin. During the time of refreshment, which has begun but will not be fulfilled until the end of the world, Christians await the †parousia or coming of the Messiah already appointed for you, Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection vindicates the claim that he is indeed the Messiah, as previously explained in Acts 2:22–36 (see Rom 1:1–4). Peter declares that these end times, the culmination of God’s plan of salvation, were foretold in the Old Testament by God . . . through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old.
[3:22–23]
The quotation from Moses in verses 22–23 is a key not only to Luke’s †Christology (his understanding of who Jesus is) but also to his †ecclesiology (his understanding of the Church) and his view of the relationship between the people of Israel and the new community of Jesus’ followers. Moses promised the Israelites that the Lord, your God, will raise up for you a prophet like me (Deut 18:15). Peter proclaims that Jesus is that †prophet like Moses. The obvious meaning of “raise up” is that God would call forth a wonder-working prophet from the people, as he called Moses and Elijah. But in light of what Peter knows happened to Jesus, a deeper meaning of “raise up” in the passage from Deuteronomy becomes clear: God would raise from the dead the prophet like Moses, and this meaning can only apply to Jesus (see v. 26).
Deuteronomy 18:15–20 emphasizes that the people must obey the prophet like Moses whom God will raise up, under pain of being cut off from the people. Here Peter interprets the prophecy to mean that the people of God, the Jews, are under absolute obligation to heed and obey Jesus, the prophet like Moses whom God has raised up: to him you shall listen in all that he may say to you. Some of the people to whom Peter is preaching rejected Jesus and had him killed (v. 15). But since they acted in ignorance (v. 17), they can now repent and be forgiven (v. 19). Peter is asserting that since God has resurrected this prophet like Moses and sent him to them through the preaching and miracles of the apostles, there is no longer an excuse for not listening to him. Those who do accept Jesus (5,000 men by Acts 4:4) become part of the restored people of God, in continuity with the people of God throughout the Old Testament.
[3:24–25]
After speaking of Jesus as the risen prophet like Moses whom the people must heed, Peter states that all the prophets in general from Samuel and those afterwards, also announced these days. Peter is expressing the Christian conviction that the entire Old Testament speaks of Christ (see Luke 24:25–27). Finally, Peter’s reference to his listeners as children of the prophets and of the covenant assures them that they are beneficiaries of God’s irrevocable covenant with Abraham (Gen 22:18): In your offspring all the families of the earth shall be blessed. God is fulfilling his promise to make his chosen people Israel the source of blessing for the entire world.
[3:26]
Peter declares that God’s raising of Jesus from death benefits first the Jews, who were the first to receive the gospel, then also Gentiles: for you first God raised his servant and sent him to bless you. This is the basis of Paul’s pattern of preaching to Jews first and then to Gentiles (Acts 13:46; 26:20) and of his hopes that one day “all Israel will be saved” (Rom 11:26). For the New Testament, the Jews remain the people of God’s promises. The condition for their receiving the blessing promised to Abraham is cooperating with the risen Jesus’ turning each of you from your evil ways. Receiving God’s blessing, whether one already belongs to God’s chosen people or not, begins with repentance for one’s sins, as Jesus himself preached: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14–15).
Peter Is Arrested for Preaching the Resurrection (4:1–4)
1While they were still speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees confronted them, 2disturbed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. 3They laid hands on them and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening. 4But many of those who heard the word came to believe and [the] number of men grew to [about] five thousand.
OT: Isa 26:19; Ezek 37:12; Dan 12:2
NT: Luke 20:37; 21:12
Catechism: persecution for faith, 769, 1808, 1816
Lectionary: Acts 4:1–12: Friday of the Octave of Easter
[4:1–2]
Luke moves rapidly from Peter’s speech to the reaction it garners by highlighting an interruption from irate listeners (as at Nazareth in Luke 4, and later in Jerusalem when Paul is speaking in Acts 22). Here it is the priests, the captain of the temple guard, and the Sadducees who interrupt the speech. The †Sadducees were members of the priestly aristocracy in Jerusalem. As Luke explains elsewhere (Luke 20:27; Acts 23:6–8), they did not believe in a resurrection. Their annoyance is due to the disciples’ proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead—a concise summary of the Christian †kerygma.
[4:3–4]
The priests, temple guard, and Sadducees arrest Peter and John and put them in custody. Despite their arrest, many of their listeners came to believe: counting only adult males, the number of men grew to [about] five thousand (see 2:41). Even when Jesus’ witnesses are imprisoned, the word of God continues to spread and the number of believers continues to grow. Official sanctions cannot prevent a significant minority of Jews in Jerusalem from becoming followers of Jesus. On the contrary, as has often happened throughout Church history, the willingness of Christians to suffer for the name of Jesus leads to an even greater spread of the gospel. The growth of the Church is proving unstoppable, no matter what the authorities try to do to hinder it.
