A Healing at the Gate
TRANSLATION
(1) One day Peter and John were going to the temple at three in the afternoon, the time of prayer. (2) Now a man lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called “Beautiful” where he was placed every day to beg from those who entered the temple. (3) When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked them for money. (4) Peter with John looked straight at him and said, “Look at us.” (5) So the man paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. (6) Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I will give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” (7) And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened. (8) Leaping up, he stood and began to walk. Then he entered with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God. (9) All the people saw him walking and praising God, (10) and they recognized that this was the man who sat, begging at the temple gate called, “Beautiful.” They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had just happened to him.
OBSERVATIONS
What took place at the gate called “Beautiful” certainly had to remind everyone of the spectacular miracles that Jesus had performed during his earthly ministry. Repetitions in this paragraph again highlighted what Luke was seeking to emphasize in these verses. “Peter and John” were mentioned together twice (vss. 1 & 3) along with two more mentions of “Peter (vss. 4 & 6) and one more of “John” (vs. 4). “Temple” is found five times (vss. 1, 2, 3, 8, & 10). “Gate called Beautiful” (vss. 2 & 10) specified where the miracle took place. Four uses of “walk/walking” (vss. 6, 8, & 9) and two of “leaping” (vs. 8) recorded the nature of the miracle, authenticating the validity of the message the apostles had been proclaiming.
OUTLINE
I. Through Peter and John God miraculously healed the lame man at the temple gate. (1-6)
II. This miracle of healing filled all with wonder at what God was doing in the early church. (7-10)
IDEA STATEMENT
The healing of the lame man at the temple gate powerfully testified to the truth of the apostles’ message that Jesus whom they crucified was indeed God’s Messiah, risen from the dead.
APPLICATION
Many have wondered why spectacular miracles like this public healing of the lame man at the temple gate have not taken place more frequently throughout church history. Some have interpreted the absence of such miracles as an indictment of a powerless church, bereft of the Holy Spirit’s working and lacking in faith. However, when we consider the Bible as a whole, we realize that spectacular miracles took place only at special times and under special circumstances when God was doing something entirely new. One such epoch of miracles occurred when God was delivering the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt. Through Moses God poured out his judgment on the Egyptians by means of ten miraculous plagues, each one an indictment of the gods of Egypt. The supernatural parting of the Red Sea, the miraculous provision of manna and quail, the amazing ways in which God sustained his people through forty years of wilderness wandering, and the defeat of the Canaanites in the Promised Land all proclaimed the establishment of the nation of Israel as God’s chosen people. After they had settled in the land, such miracles occurred far less frequently.
Another grouping of spectacular miracles endorsed the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, God’s spokesmen during the first period of Israel’s divided monarchy and increasing apostasy. And, of course, Jesus’ earthly ministry was filled with miracles of healing and deliverance confirming his identity as the Son of God, Israel’s Messiah. Finally, God granted miracles through the Apostles during the early years of the newly established church as the Gospel began to be spread. Once the church had been planted throughout the Roman Empire, spectacular miracles occurred far less frequently.