A Brave New Church Series

This man had been born cripple. Peter lifts the man up and the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He had never used his legs before. His muscles would have been atrophied and useless and all of a sudden he can walk. So he goes into the temple running, and jumping, and dancing. The amazing thing about this is that he does this in the temple! No body told him not to run in church. He is just running around like a little rabbit cheering and praising God at the top of his voice. This has to be an amazing experience. Can you imagine being in the temple for this? You are trying to worship in your solemn very serious prayer when this crazy man comes running though jumping up and down going: WOOOOHHHOOOO! LOOK AT ME! I CAN RUN! I CAN JUMP! THIS IS AWESOME! I just see someone leaning over going: who is that? Oh that’s the lame guy. So a lame guy goes leaping like a gazelle through the temple of God.

When the people saw this and recognized this man they were amazed. What is interesting is why this miracle? There were so many healings and miracles going on at this time, so why does Luke tell us this story? The healing of a crippled man is of particular significance in Luke’s mind. Jesus first miracle was the healing of a crippled man, Paul’s first miracle was the healing of a crippled man, here we see Peter’s first miracle was the healing of a crippled man.

Just as in Acts 2 we see in Acts 3 a miracle followed by preaching. In Acts 2 its tongues in Acts 3 it is a healing of a crippled man.

Ac 3:11 While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. Ac 3:12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? Ac 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. Ac 3:14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. Ac 3:15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. Ac 3:16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.

It must have been an amazing thing to see this man running around. Yet Peter asks: why are you surprised? It was not by their power that they healed this man. It was through the power of God that this man now was running and jumping around. You see throughout the book of Acts we see that miracles are often used to get people’s attention so that the word of God can be preached with authority. It seems that while God has no problem performing miracles His ultimate desire is not to wow people into faith but for them to come to Him without having to see natural laws defied all around them. Yet God will perform great miracles through His Spirit in the world so that we all may see and believe.