ACTS 3
Act 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of
prayer, being the ninth hour.
Act 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they
laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of
them that entered into the temple;
Act 3:3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
Act 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
Act 3:5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
Act 3:6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I
thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Act 3:7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately
his feet and ankle bones received strength.
Act 3:8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the
temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
Act 3:9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God:
Act 3:10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate
of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had
happened unto him.
Act 3:11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the
people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly
wondering.
Act 3:12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel,
why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own
power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
Maybe we would have more healing today if we would have the attitude that Peter
and John had. They absolutely refused to accept adoration from these people.
They made it quite clear that the man's healing did not come about by any
holiness or power they had in themselves. We must return to the days when we
give God all the glory bringing people to Him and not to ourselves. God is all
in all. God is the one that saves, heals and gives the increase. We are His
vessels. Jesus said though that signs shall follow them that believe so unbelief
is a great hindrance to these signs. It is true that in the latter day
false signs and wonders will occur to get people to follow after another besides
Jesus. We are never to follow signs and allow signs to cause us to follow
an individual, we are to follow Christ but signs should be following all who
believe and walk in the truth. That is why God gives us a list of the
fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit should be within those that
have signs following them. If we see someone supposedly able to heal the
sick and his life is full of idolatry, greed and sexual immorality, we do not
follow him, he has no fruit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance which
means self-control. A true servant of God is humble, meek and will never
accept the worship of men for what God has done.
Act 3:13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,
hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the
presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
Act 3:14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be
granted unto you;
Act 3:15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead;
whereof we are witnesses.
Act 3:16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom
ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect
soundness in the presence of you all.
In His name, the name of Jesus, through faith in His name, the name of Jesus,
was this man healed. Jesus did it. Not Peter and not John as precious as those
faithful brethren were, they were not the healers. They were not faith healers.
God is the healer.
Act 3:17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also
your rulers.
Act 3:18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his
prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
Act 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted
out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
Notice that first of all Peter seemed to be lashing out at the Jews for
killing Jesus and if we stopped at verse 16 that is the idea we would get.
However if we read verse 17 and 18 we see that all this fulfills scripture and
that it was supposed to happen so that many could be saved from sin and inherit
eternal life. We are never to hate Jews living today for what happened
2000 years ago. It was supposed to happen or no flesh would ever be saved.
Repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out. If we do not
repent and if we are not converted to Jesus Christ our sins will remain and we
will die in sin. If we are "in sin" at the time of our death, we will not be
saved. We must try our best to get people to repent if they are still living in
sin. Jesus did not come to save us in our sins but He came to save us from our
sins. Sin is transgression of the Law of God. If we have broken just one of
those laws, we have sinned and sin is indwelling within us. Jesus came to free
us from sin. To repent means to turn from sin and change. We must be converted
and change by allowing the Sprit of God to enter our lives and change us from
death unto life. It is not just a mental assent to the existence of one
called Jesus. It is not just changing religions from Jewish to Christian
or from being an atheist to becoming a Christian. Salvation is more than
an outward religion, it is a new life in the spirit.
Act 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Act 3:21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the
world began.
When the gospel is preached to the entire word and the time is right, Jesus will
return this time to judge the world and bring vengeance upon those who opposed
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Act 3:22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all
things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
Whatever Jesus says we must listen to. Do we know what He said? Do we just read
one verse and do not heed all the others. Someday I'm going to write an article
on what Jesus actually said since it has so much to do with our eternal
salvation.
Acts 3:22 is a fulfillment of
Deu 18:15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of
thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Act 3:23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that
prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
If we ignore Jesus we will be lost. I didn't say this, the bible said it. We
have to be careful with verse 23. All those who do not hear Jesus Christ
and do not receive Him will be cut off. This is not a license for the
church or any religious group to take up the sword and bring vengeance upon
those that do not know God. The judgment has to come from God. We
cannot do this ahead of time like many have done. It is not our job.
Our job is to preach the gospel. We are not to punish the disobedient.
If we try to do this, we will harm the innocent. It has been done.
Jesus said to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. He
said to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. When someone rejects
our message, we simply move on to someone else and let God do the judging.
Act 3:24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as
many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Act 3:25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made
with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of
the earth be blessed.
Act 3:26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless
you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
The main purpose was to turn us from iniquity. This hope was given to the Jews
first. We can't stay in sin and ignore
the word of God and still expect to have eternal life. We are to "TURN FROM" our
iniquities and let Jesus remove it from our lives by faith in Him to be able to
do this. We can't do this without Him for there is no remission of sins without
Jesus. Without His Holy Spirit we can't be delivered from sin. The Holy Spirit
is that living water than cleanses us from sin. The word of God is also that
living water. We need this cleansing to be able to enter into eternal life.
