Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the hour of prayer, three in
the afternoon.
A man crippled from birth was being carried. They used to set
him down every day at the Temple gate which is called “Beautiful,” so that
he could beg from people going into the Temple.When he saw Peter and
John about to go into the Temple, he begged for a gift.
But Peter fastened his
eyes on him, as did John, and said, “Look at us!”He stared at them
expectantly, hoping to receive something from them.
Peter said, “Money I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Messiah of
Nazareth, walk!”
Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up.
Immediately his feet and ankles became strong,and he leapt to his feet and began walking. He entered the Temple with them, walking, leaping and
praising God.All the people saw him walking and praising God.
They
recognized him as the one who used to sit begging for gifts at the Beautiful
Gate of the Temple, and they were filled with wonder and astonishment at
what had happened to him.He held on to Peter and John. All the people, in utter amazement, ran
together to them to the porch called Solomon’s Porch.
When Peter saw this
he addressed the people: “People of Israel, why are you amazed? Why are
you staring at us as though by our own power or godliness we had made this
man walk?The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers,
has glorified His servant[771]
Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in
the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.
14 But you
denied the holy and righteous one, and asked that a murderer be released to
you instead. 15 You killed the leader of life, whom God raised from the dead,
and we are witnesses of that fact.
16 Based on faith in Jesus’ name,[772]
that
name has strengthened this man,[773]
whom you see and know. The faith
which comes through Jesus[774]
has given this man perfect health in the
presence of all of you.
17 “Now, brothers and sisters, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did
your rulers also. 18 But the things which God foretold through all the prophets,
that His Messiah would suffer, He has in this way fulfilled.
19 Repent therefore
and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out and so that there may
come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He will
send Jesus, the Messiah appointed for you. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time for the restoration of all things,[775] which God announced from long
ago through His holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will put on the
scene of history a prophet like me from among your brothers.[776]
You are to
listen to and obey him, everything he says to you.
23 Everyone who will not listen to and obey that
prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 And all the
prophets who have spoken have announced these days, from Samuel and
those who followed after. 25 You are the children of the prophets, and of the
covenant which God made with your fathers, promising to Abraham, ‘All the
families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.’
26 God produced His
servant[777]
and sent him to you first to bless you, by turning every one of you
away from your wickedness.”
Commentary
Acts
[770]
This of course is the One God of Israel, a single Divine Person, the Father. It is certainly not
the triune God of much later Greek-philosophically influenced theology.
[771]
The famous servant of Isaiah, of course, who was to be the ideal Israelite, loving and obeying
God.
[772]
“Name” in Scripture stands for all a person is, his identity, character, agenda, teaching and
authority. There is nothing in the sound of the name itself, but it is what stands behind the name, the
whole person, who counts.
[773]
The risen lord Jesus Messiah is of course intensively active in the Church, then as now, where
the truth is being discovered. God is to be worshipped in spirit and truth (Jn. 4:24), and obscurity over
the definition of God and the Son of God impedes clear thinking about and worship of the Father.
[774]
The faith in the work and teachings of Jesus, the faith modeled by Jesus as well as faith in him.
[775]
With this single statement about the apokatastasis (restoration) of everything which the
prophets announced (see for example Isa. 1:26), Peter expects us to understand the whole promise of
peace on earth (Isa. 2; 65:17ff; Rev. 20:1-6), a restored nation of Israel (Isa. 19) and the Kingdom of
God worldwide on earth, with Jesus on the throne of David restored, in short the whole basis of the
Christian Gospel of the Kingdom. It entails of course the raising of the faithful dead and their
participation in the Kingdom as then immortalized rulers with Jesus (Dan. 7:18, 22, 27; 1 Cor. 6:2,
etc.).
[776]
The reference is to the marvelous promise of Messiah in Deut. 18-15-18 whom no one reading
would imagine to be a second GOD! The Messiah must originate from the family of Israel and be like
Moses. His origin is described in Luke 1:35 and Matt 1:18, 20; 1 John 5:18 (“begotten,” “brought into
existence”). There is no “God the Son,” an eternally begotten Son, anywhere in the Bible.
[777]
By miracle in Mary (Lk. 1:35) which explicitly constituted him uniquely the Son of God, the second Adam, pioneer of the way to immortality for all who choose (1 Tim. 2:4-5).
Acts