Acts 3

Riches Beyond Silver or Gold

It’s all around us. You can’t seem to get away from it. Ads, ads, and more ads. Every time I turn on the TV it seems there is a commercial for something. If you just buy this car or piece of jewelry or dress or pair of pants your life will be so much better. If you eat this or go here, you will be really cool and have lots of friends. Ads are everywhere – on the TV, radio, subways, movie theaters, streets, highways and in the stores. We all want something and they are willing to sell it to us. But is it what we really need? Can having all the money and stuff in the world really meet our needs? In Acts 3, we find there is something worth more than gold or silver. Something that will really make our lives better and more fulfilled.

Vs 1-10 Now Peter and John were going up together to the temple complex at the hour of prayer at three in the afternoon. And a man who was lame from birth was carried there and placed every day at the temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg from those entering the temple complex. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple complex, he asked for help. Peter, along with John, looked at him intently and said, “Look at us.” So he turned to them, expecting to get something from them. But Peter said, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” Then, taking him by the right hand he raised him up, and at once his feet and ankles became strong. So he jumped up, stood, and started to walk, and he entered the temple complex with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized that he was the one who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful Gate of the temple complex So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him.

There are three times of prayer: the morning prayer (Shacharit or Shaharit, which means “of the dawn”), afternoon prayer (Mincha or Minha – meaning below), and evening prayer (Arvit, which means “of the evening” or Maariv, meaning “bringing on night”) This passage is during the afternoon prayer time. The Hebrew wood Mincha means a  “gift” or “offering”, and is derived from the meal offering that accompanied each sacrifice offered in the Temple. It was at this time that Peter and John encounter this unnamed lame man at the temple gate called Beautiful. We do not know which gate Luke is referring to here, but it would have been a gate leading into the temple complex that was well trafficked so the man could gain the most financial benefit from his begging. In his cultural context, this man would have been unable to support himself otherwise. He was totally reliant on the good will or alms giving from those around him. He obviously had some good friends, because they carried him there everyday. Proverbs 19:17 says, “Kindness to the poor is a loan to the Lord, and He will give a reward to the lender.” On a side note, this should give us all pause (I know it does me) to think how we can be more kind and generous to those around us in need! And so, the divine appointment has been set. It is the Mincha, or gift/offering time of prayer. There is a man at the Beautiful gate in need of a gift. He is expecting coins. Instead he gets much, much more.

Peter and John are on their way to pray at the temple. This lame, begging man asks them for help as he has asked everyone else who has passed by for help. He isn’t looking, just hoping. He isn’t paying attention, just casting out his plea to the masses. This time, it’s different. Peter and John stop and speak to him. “Look at us,” they say. Pay attention they are saying. Something big is about to happen. Look at us! When the man looks at them, he does so with expectation. Someone has noticed him. Maybe a large gift is coming! It was a tremendous gift, just not what he was expecting. Peter says to him, “I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” The first part of this sentence is not necessarily what the man wants to hear. I don’t have what you are asking for. The second part is what the man needed to hear. I have something infinitely better. Not coins that can only buy a day or so of food and shelter, but the means to support yourself for the rest of your life. Not coins that you can’t take with you, but a life that is transformed for eternity. And the man takes it. He is lifted up out of obscurity into a life that is full and fruitful. For perhaps the first time in his life, he leaps and dances. For the first time he is able to go into the temple complex. He begins to praise God and everyone around him is in awe at what has happened.

Vs 11-15 While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people, greatly amazed, ran toward them in what is called Solomon’s Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Or why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you. You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. 

Now this divine appointment has given way to another opportunity. It has opened up an moment to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. All the people who were in the temple complex ran toward them. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Peter begins his time by asking them an interesting question – “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this?” The Greek says why do you wonder or marvel at this? Think about this for a moment. This man, who they have all seen lame and begging as they make their way into the temple complex, is now walking, leaping and praising God. It is pretty amazing! Yet, Peter wonders why they are marveling at it. It begs the question – why do we marvel when God’s work is happening around us? Shouldn’t the work of God be something that is ongoing and a part of our Christian experience? When in God’s house, shouldn’t amazing things be happening? Is it because we don’t believe or expect it? Just something to think about.

Peter then goes on to begin to show them who really did the healing. “why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness?” He makes sure they know it wasn’t his doing. I don’t have the power, but the One you crucified does. He tells them they tried to kill the source of life, but God raised Him from the dead! He reminds them that they denied Him, but God had better plans in store. Now he had their attention. The healing of the lame man was what it took to get them interested, but Peter knew that wasn’t going to bring them to saving faith. Only God can do that.

Vs 16-26 By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Him has given him this perfect health in front of all of you. “And now, brothers, I know that you did it in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. But what God predicted through the mouth of all the prophets—that His Messiah would suffer—He has fulfilled in this way. Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must welcome Him until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about by the mouth of His holy prophets from the beginning. Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him in everything He will say to you. And everyone who will not listen to that Prophet will be completely cut off from the people. “In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also announced these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring. God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”

It is only “by faith in His name.” It is through faith that the lame man could walk. It is through faith that the people could turn from their sin to everlasting life. Peter lays it out plainly for them. Peter, like us, had the temptation to take the credit for himself. It is easy to place our faith in other things like material good, our own talents, our work ethic, past achievements, even our good intentions. Peter knew that none of these things would work. He knew it was only through faith in God that the people could find something worth more than gold and silver. This is what the lame man found and this is what we can find as well.

Peter’s sermon explains the suffering of Jesus. He shows the people that Jesus was truly the Messiah who has fulfilled all the Law and Prophets. Peter then calls for their repentance. “Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah.” Here is the good news – the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the same good news that is for us and those around us. Jesus is worth more than gold and silver. He can satisfy us far beyond anything the commercials or ads promise. He can make a way for us when there seems to be no way. It is by faith in His name that we come to the throne of God.