It is interesting that the man had been at the gate for years and years – including the many times when Jesus had walked in and out of the Temple – and yet it was this particular day that he was healed. Jesus’ strategy to work through the members of his body, the Church, allows him to work in more and various ways than when he restricted himself to an individual physical presence. The timing of this man’s healing also indicates that miracles like this are not distributed willy-nilly like a lolly scramble, but rather they are judiciously worked in Christ’s wisdom so that they will teach something or loosen an avalanche of new opportunities for people to enter God’s kingdom. On this day, the lame man received a great blessing upon his ankles, but the greater blessing was the opening of his heart to Christ, and an even greater shock-wave was the preaching of Peter that explained the miracle and shook the tree so even more fruit fell into God’s kingdom.
Peter immediately recognised what Jesus was doing and grasped the opportunity to explain the meaning of the miracle. There beside them, clinging to them in gratitude, was the living evidence of Jesus’ power to rescue. So, first, Peter confesses the source of this healing. “It wasn’t us!” he declares. It is not the special character or nature of a person that gets Gods’ work done. It is Christ who gets God’s work done. Second, he explains who Jesus is. He is ‘God’s servant’ – a term used in the Old Testament (especially Isaiah) to identify him as the first and only true man able to do God’s will properly.
Isaiah 52.13
Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
Third, Peter reminds them that the ideal man (the Servant, Jesus) that God put forward and confirmed with miracles and powerful word, they rejected and crucified. He is none other than the Author of Life (the Word through whom all life came into existence) and yet they killed him. But God has contradicted their decision about Jesus and has raised him to life.
Fourth, Peter points to the healed cripple as evidence that by depending on this living Jesus the healing was done. Faith in his name remade this man’s ruined ankles.
Peter’s preaching is Christ-focused. He wants his hearers to also ‘fix their attention’ on just who it is at work amongst them. Our sharing, teaching and preaching must always be anchored back to who Jesus Christ is, what he is doing and how he is calling people to respond to him.
Having declared their scandalous misjudgement in rejecting Jesus (the very one that God has declared to be the Holy and Righteous One) and preferring the murderer Barrabas, Peter asserts the good news: They can be forgiven! The message of the Church is good news (gospel) - not to denounce and judge people. We expose sin for what it is, but we hold out the good news of forgiveness and restoration.
Peter offers the blotting out of their sins and spiritual refreshment through receiving the life of Jesus for themselves. He urges them to repent; to own up to the dreadful, supremely ignorant sin of rejecting Jesus and to accept him now while there is an opportunity. Jesus had revealed himself as available and able to help them by demonstrating his presence and power in the healing of the lame man. Jesus was representing himself through the joy of that healed man and the words of Peter.
This is how Jesus carries on his work through the church. He holds up our redeemed and improved lives and he fuses to that the preaching and teaching of his word. We need both! We must pay attention to the quality of our lives as Jesus’ evidence to a sin-ravaged and lost world. We must get his forgiveness and his clean-up active in our own lives if we are to be his advertisements in the world. We must pay attention to the quality, quantity and intensity of our sharing, teaching and preaching of his word which must explain the transformations in our lives. Programmes and technologies won’t cut it. We need lives that positively shine with the purity of Christ. We need lives that walk, leap and praise God. Only then will what we teach and talk about from God’s word break through the unbelief in the world.
Peter finished his address by telling them that God was graciously giving them first chance at receiving his blessing – if they will turn from their wickedness to Christ (3.26). Peter felt the urgency that these people of Jerusalem needed to make their peace with God before the chance was taken away from them. The Lord goes first to those who have a reputation for being his people and calls them to faith in Jesus – but that opportunity is not open-ended.
Jesus operates through his Church. We must co-operate with him. Peter and John show us how.
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