Passage: Acts 3:1-10. Peter and John followed Jesus in their healing ministry, for he too healed the disabled and paralyzed (e.g. Matt. 9:1-8 // Mark 2:1-12; John 5:1-14). They saw him do this.

Let’s learn from them in our own healing ministry today.

The translations are mine, but if you would like to see many other translations, please go to biblegateway.com. I include the Greek text to bring out the nuances, but readers may ignore the left column, if they wish.

Let’s begin.

A Lame Beggar Is Healed (Acts 3:1-10)

1 Πέτρος δὲ καὶ Ἰωάννης ἀνέβαινον εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν ἐπὶ τὴν ὥραν τῆς προσευχῆς τὴν ἐνάτην. 2 καί τις ἀνὴρ χωλὸς ἐκ κοιλίας μητρὸς αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχων ἐβαστάζετο, ὃν ἐτίθουν καθ’ ἡμέραν πρὸς τὴν θύραν τοῦ ἱεροῦ τὴν λεγομένην Ὡραίαν τοῦ αἰτεῖν ἐλεημοσύνην παρὰ τῶν εἰσπορευομένων εἰς τὸ ἱερόν· 3 ὃς ἰδὼν Πέτρον καὶ Ἰωάννην μέλλοντας εἰσιέναι εἰς τὸ ἱερόν, ἠρώτα ἐλεημοσύνην λαβεῖν. 4 ἀτενίσας δὲ Πέτρος εἰς αὐτὸν σὺν τῷ Ἰωάννῃ εἶπεν· βλέψον εἰς ἡμᾶς. 5 ὁ δὲ ἐπεῖχεν αὐτοῖς προσδοκῶν τι παρ’ αὐτῶν λαβεῖν. 6 εἶπεν δὲ Πέτρος· ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον οὐχ ὑπάρχει μοι, ὃ δὲ ἔχω τοῦτό σοι δίδωμι· ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ Ναζωραίου [ἔγειρε καὶ] περιπάτει. 7 καὶ πιάσας αὐτὸν τῆς δεξιᾶς χειρὸς ἤγειρεν αὐτόν· παραχρῆμα δὲ ἐστερεώθησαν αἱ βάσεις αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ σφυδρά, 8 καὶ ἐξαλλόμενος ἔστη καὶ περιεπάτει καὶ εἰσῆλθεν σὺν αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν περιπατῶν καὶ ἁλλόμενος καὶ αἰνῶν τὸν θεόν. 9 καὶ εἶδεν πᾶς ὁ λαὸς αὐτὸν περιπατοῦντα καὶ αἰνοῦντα τὸν θεόν· 10 ἐπεγίνωσκον δὲ αὐτὸν ὅτι αὐτὸς ἦν ὁ πρὸς τὴν ἐλεημοσύνην καθήμενος ἐπὶ τῇ ὡραίᾳ πύλῃ τοῦ ἱεροῦ καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν θάμβους καὶ ἐκστάσεως ἐπὶ τῷ συμβεβηκότι αὐτῷ.

1 Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the time of prayer. 2 And there was a certain man, disabled from his mother’s womb, and he was carried along and placed each day at the temple gate called Beautiful, in order to beg for money from those going into the temple. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go inside the temple, he asked to receive money. 4 Peter, with John, while he was gazing on him, said, “Look at us!” 5 He looked intently at them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I don’t own silver and gold, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” 7 When he seized him by the right hand, he lifted him up. Instantly his feet and ankles were strengthened, 8 and he leaped up, stood upright, and walked around. He entered into the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And everyone saw him walking and praising God 10 and recognized that this was the one sitting before the temple’s Beautiful Gate, begging. And they were filled with astonishment and amazement at what had come together for him.

Comments:

The poor beggar was lame from his mother’s womb. This means “from birth,” which is how the majority of translation have it. He was over 40 years old (Acts 4:21). He was born with his disability. In John 9, a man who was born blind was healed. Some Jews of the time considered defects from birth a sign of a grave sin for which God was punishing him (presumably the parents’ sins) (John 9:1-2) (HT: Schnabel, comment on v. 2). However, it does not matter what disability one has and when one got it. Jesus through his disciples can heal it. Nothing is too hard for him.

No doubt the nameless man called out to Peter and John. “Hey! Alms! Alms for a poor cripple!” He was used to doing that. But the text is silent, so I won’t push this view.

“fixing his gaze on him”: it comes from the verb atenizō (pronounced ah-teh-nee-zoh) and also means “stare intently or intensely.” Luke is fond of it: Luke 4:20; 22:56; Acts 1:10; 3:4; 3:12; 6:15; 7:55; 10:4; 11:6; 13:9; 14:9; 23:1. Then Paul uses it twice: 2 Cor. 3:7, 13.

The man returned the gaze. He was eager to get some money from the two men, whom he did not recognize as apostles. No doubt Peter and John and other apostles went through that gate every day, and no doubt this man sat there for many days? What was special about that day? It was his time. Faith and expectation converged. Maybe the expectation to get money leaked over for something deeper. Or maybe not. But something was different about that day.

Schnabel counts seven verbs in verse 8 alone. After reviewing each one, he writes: “But his [the lame man’s] reaction certainly breaks ‘physionomic convention’—he does not walk slowly, deliberately, like a man, but jumps up and down, with rapid movements, showing no self-constraint. The healed man leaps n exuberant joy and grateful acknowledgement of God miraculous intervention” (comment on v. 8). Enthusiasm at God’s blessing is appropriate.

I like Schnabel here:

However, believers in Jesus need to reckon more specifically, more typically, and more fervently that Jesus’ power can indeed heal seriously sick people. The power of Jesus continues to heal the sick as he continues to be the risen and exalted Messiah and Lord. At the same time, Jesus’ power did not prevent the Jewish leaders from throwing Peter and John into prison, which happened in the evening of the day on which the lame man was healed (4:3). (p. 199)

I add: in Acts 3:16, faith was present. Something happened in the lame man, for him to be healed. Maybe it was a transference from Peter and John to him. We don’t know. But I suggest that we pray in faith for healing to happen and then leave the results up to God. Finally, as Schnabel wisely says, expect opposition from religious people.

Give the formerly lame man credit. Some people like their infirmity, particularly when they can make money, and begging outside the gate as people went into the temple must have been the prime spot. He may have made lots of money. Recall what Jesus asked the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda: “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he was there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healthy?” (John 5:6). But he sincerely rejoiced at his healing. He did not secretly wish to remain lame and get charity and pity.

Keener: Healing of the lame “is an eschatological gift announcing the arrival of the messianic era (Luke 7:22, recalling Isa 35:5-6, to which Luke also alludes in the ‘leaping’ of Acts 3:8)” (p. 183).

One last point: he was forty years old and was lame from birth. He must have begged at the gate for many years. Jesus must have walked past him while the Lord was in Jerusalem. He did not heal him then. But now was the right time for the man’s healing.

Application for Ministry Today

I believe we can learn how to minister as the apostles did, because of the nine gifts of the Spirit are available to all believers (1 Cor. 12:4-11). Three gifts are discernings of spirits, the workings of miracles, and gifts of healings, as the Spirit distributes them. All Bible-based leaders should pray for and welcome these gifts and the six others in that passage, when people needs healings and deliverances. Let me number my points in this section for clarity and order.

1..The temple—the Colonnade of Solomon (see v. 11, below)—is their meeting place. Call it a mega-church of sorts, because Acts 2:41 says 3000 people were being added to the new Messianic community, and then Acts 4:4 adds 5000 more. Minsters of the gospel must

2.. The apostles were regular prayer warriors. Are you?

3.. You know you have God’s authority when you can stare at satanic attacks right in the face (so to speak). If you cannot, please pray for the inner strength and grace and anointing to be able to stand and not to fold or flag during satanic and broken human attacks (I pray this almost every day). In the power of the Spirit (not soul power), stare down this kind of opposition. Don’t flinch.

3.. Peter and John both fixed their gaze on him. They were perceiving his faith. Did he want to be healed? Jesus asked the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, who had been afflicted with his condition for thirty-eight years, whether he wanted to be healed. “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6). And he asked blind Bartimaeus—who was obviously blind, since he was sitting with other blind men—“What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10:51 // Luke 18:41).

4.. It must never be underestimated that some people are so used to their conditions that they do not want healing. Lots of disabled people sat by the pool of Bethesda, but Jesus healed only one. Lots of people were blind on that day, but Jesus healed only two (Matt. 20:29-34). But in the beggar’s case, Peter and John deeply perceived that he had the desire to get well. See more comments at v. 10. It is not clear whether he had faith, but it is clear Peter and John did.

5.. Peter proclaims that he did not have the natural means to make him content—silver and gold. But he had something infinitely better: the name of Jesus. In general terms the name stands in for a person and his character and then his authority and power. Authority and power flows out of who he is.

6.. The good news is that God through Jesus can distribute authority to Jesus’s followers (Matt. 10:1; Luke 10:19; John 1:12). We stand in for Jesus when we pray in his name, by his authority and power. Everything is based on who he is—Lord and Savior and Messiah.

7.. Peter did not pray a flowery prayer: “O thou God, if it be thy will to heal him, then I pray that in your sovereignty thou wouldst do this wonderful thing, but only in thy timing in the far-off future.” No. Peter commanded him: “Walk around!”

8.. “name”: this noun stands in for the person—a living, real person. You carry your father’s name. If he is dysfunctional, his name is a disadvantage. If he is functional and impacting society for the better, then his name is an advantage. In Jesus’s case, he has the highest status in the universe, under the Father (Col. 1:15-20). He is exalted above every principality and power (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:20-23; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8). His character is perfection itself. His authority and power are absolute, under the Father. In his name you are seated in the heavenly places with Christ (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1).

Now down here on earth you walk and live as an ambassador in his name, in his stead, for he is no longer living on earth, so you have to represent him down here. We are his ambassadors who stand in for his name (2 Cor. 5:20). The good news is that he did not leave you without power and authority. He gave you his. Now you represent him in his name—his person, power and authority. Therefore under his authority we have his full authority to preach the gospel and set people free from bondages and satanic spirits and heal them of diseases.

9.. Peter issued a command in Jesus’s name. “Walk!” Then he put action to his words and took him by the right hand and lifted him up. And that’s when the healing happened—instantly or immediately. His feet and ankles were strengthened, which is implied in the Greek that his bones were firmed up. It was a miracle of strengthening and straightening. God can do anything. Nothing is too hard for him.

Recall that Mark 11:22-24 says to speak to the mountain. Often we don’t have to pray to God, when he already gave his authority and power. We can authoritatively command. But sometimes we do have to pray first (Mark 11:24). After you pray to God, command the person to be healed and the disease to go. Then Peter took the man by the hand and lifting him up. You too can do this, as the Spirit leads.

10.. It is clear what Peter and John saw in him. He leaped up. He didn’t whine or listen to fear. “I don’t know if I ready! Maybe I shouldn’t do this!” No. He leaped up. Then he stood firm. And finally he walked around. All this must have happened in just a few seconds—leaping-standing—walking about. Athletes will walk out a slight sprain, testing it. It must have been like that 2000 years ago.

10.. As all three walked into the temple, he couldn’t stop walking and leaping. He added praise to his healing. Once again, this shows that he was ready—that it was that day of all other previous days. A big smile blessed his countenance. His praising God was audible to everyone, so he was shouting his praises. Gratitude is contagious.

11. As I write in all the healing posts:

Let it be noted that the disciples never went in for or “decree and declare.” Name one time they used such verbiage during their prayer for the sick. Thus even the first-generation of disciples never arrogated this much power to themselves.

Instead, while Jesus was alive, God the Father through his Son who was anointed by the Spirit performed miracles of healing and deliverance (Acts 10:38). And it is easy to believe that the disciples followed Jesus, in Acts.

12..We too should develop life in the Spirit (Gal. 5), so we can hear from the Father through the Spirit, in Jesus’s name and authority granted to us. We will never heal as Jesus did, because he is the Anointed One without limits (John 3:34). But after the cross and the Son’s ascension, the Spirit can distribute the gifts of healings (plural) as he determines (1 Cor. 12:11), not as we “name and claim” or “decree and declare.” Let the Spirit work, and you listen and obey, and then rebuke a disease (not the person) or pray for healing.

4. Gifts of the Spirit: Gifts of Healings

Kenneth Copeland Gets a Pacemaker

Is ‘Decreeing’ Biblical for Christians?

What Is Biblical Confession?

For fuller commentary, please go the chapter:

Acts 3

Scroll down to the right verses.