Peter's Sermon At Solomon's Portico Series

PETER’S SERMON AT SOLOMON’S PORTICO

Acts 3:11-15

(Antioch Baptist Church: Wednesday July 2nd, 2025)

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In late March of 2020 our lives dramatically changed; none of us expected to experience a worldwide pandemic that would affect every single aspect of our lives. In the early days of that pandemic we heard many Federal and State authorities use phrases like "3 weeks to flatten the curve" or “15 days to slow the spread” .

We all know that the effects of the pandemic lasted much longer than 3 weeks. As a pastor I was faced with some of the most difficult decisions and greatest challenges of my time in ministry. One of the biggest was how to keep a church together when we were legally “not allowed” to meet together. The best idea that I could come up with was to purchase an FM transmitter and begin “drive in services”. As a result, I preached from the front porch of our church for over two months.

To say that this was a trying time would be an understatement, but God was faithful and in the process He taught us that the Church can survive (and even thrive) with or without a building. During that time our church grew numerically and spiritually. The Savior was exalted, Saints were edified, and sinners were evangelized.

I have never been innovative or creative, but we were one of the first churches in the state to offer a “drive in” service. Though the FM Transmitter was something of a new idea, I was far from the first gospel preacher to deliver a Christian sermon on the porch. That honor goes to the Apostle Peter.

In our selected text we see Peter stand at Solomon’s Portico and deliver a bold and powerful sermon. I would like to walk through these verses together and examine “Peter’s Sermon At Solomon’s Portico”.

Solomon's Portico was a large, covered walkway, or colonnade, on the eastern side of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (Various translations refer to this area as a “Colonnade” or “Portico” but we southerners would simply call it a “porch”). After the miraculous healing of the lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate a large crowd ran to this portico filled with “wonder and amazement”. When they arrived, Peter confronted them with the Gospel and in the end approximately 2,000 men came to faith in Christ. (Acts 4:4 many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.)

- As we consider this amazing moment in Church history I would like to examine:

THE OCCASION OF PETER’S SERMON

In the previous verses, Peter & John encountered a man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple who had been lame since the day he was born. This lame beggar was hoping to receive some charity from them but they had no “silver or gold”. However, they had something far better; they had access to the very Creator and Sustainer of the universe.

Peter looked at this man and said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." Verse 8 says that “he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them--walking, leaping, and praising God.” This man immediately became a witness of the amazing power of Jesus Christ. All who saw him knew that a miracle had occurred. (v9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.)

- This leads us to:

THE AUDIENCE THAT HEARD PETER’S SERMON

v9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon's, greatly amazed.

Everyone knew who this man was; He was a perennial fixture at the Beautiful Gate. Every day as the worshippers entered the Temple they saw his face and they heard his voice as he begged for alms. After he received his healing, the change in this man’s life was undeniable. God was going to use him to teach an important lesson to the people who had been responsible for the death of Christ just a few weeks earlier.

Peter confronts this crowd of amazed witnesses. He declares that it was Jesus of Nazareth who was responsible for the transformation that had taken place right before their eyes. Notice: