Now Peter and John were going up together to the temple complex at the hour of prayer at three in the afternoon. And a man who was lame from birth was carried there and placed every day at the temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg from those entering the temple complex. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple complex, he asked for help. Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, “Look at us.” So he turned to them, expecting to get something from them. But Peter said, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” Then, taking him by the right hand he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong. So he jumped up, stood, and started to walk, and he entered the temple complex with them — walking, leaping, and praising God. (Acts 3:1-8 — Holman Christian Standard Bible)
The disciples still continued to follow Jewish traditions in the early days after Jesus was taken up into the clouds, and so this afternoon Peter and John must have been attending the afternoon prayer in the temple — two sacrifices were made each day, morning and afternoon, and a prayer was made after each one. This lame man was placed at one of the main gates to the temple, clearly a good place to beg for handouts. He was at the door to God’s temple, a God of miracles and power, and God’s people were going in and out, passing by this suffering man, and it seems that it did not occur to anyone that the God they were worshipping wanted to heal him. Then Peter and John came along, newly filled with the Holy Spirit, with the vision to give this man what he really needed rather than a temporary fix. They had no silver and gold to give him, but they healed him from a sickness he had had from birth.
Before we shake our heads at the spiritual dullness of this man and the other Jews, let’s take a look at ourselves. Don’t we do this? If we’re not careful, we can walk around speaking about the greatness of God and how miracles happen today, and then not have faith for them in our lives, or in the lives of the suffering people around us. How many of us believe in a big God, yet live small lives that lack His power and greatness?
An amazing aspect of this story is the way that Peter and John immediately made it very clear to the gathering crowd that this miracles was not their doing, but that Jesus of Nazareth was responsible (verse 12 and following). When they commanded the sick man to get up and walk “in the name of Jesus the Nazarene”, this phrase was not a magical formula, rather they used Jesus’ name because a name represents a person’s power and authority. By using Jesus’ name they were making a statement that they had the total confidence that He could and would do this miracle.
Luke, a doctor by profession, then gives details of how this miracle happened… his feet and ankles became strong, he stood, walked, and even leaped. A true healing verified by many first hand witnesses.
There are times that you need to reassess your situation, refuse to go with conventional wisdom, look at your problem with the intensity of raw faith, and then speak the miracle into existence. At these moments you cannot look to those around you for support, because you’re likely to get none. You have to force your way through your problem because you know that God is alive, and that it would be wrong to put up with what everyone else considers normal. — Look for opportunities to respond like Peter and John from now on.
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