Session 4
Acts 3:12-26
Memory Verse: Acts 3:19
In His providence, God puts us in positions to share the gospel. While we will probably never experience the kind of miracle that John and Peter experienced in Acts 3, we must be ready to share what Jesus has done for us when we get the chance. The miracle of regeneration performed by the Holy Spirit and the work of sanctification that He continues in our lives are just as much a cause for praise as the miracle experienced by the man at the temple gate.
As you study this week’s session, identify some “missed opportunities” when you could have shared the gospel, but didn’t. Think about what held you back and what you would change if you got another chance like that. Pray that God will make you sensitive to the doors He opens and ask Him to help you challenge the adults in your Bible study to do the same. God will honor a prayer like that. You just need to be ready when you see an opportunity.
Being in the right place at the right time can mean life or death. When a former lifeguard was walking on a sidewalk near a beach, he saw a man go under a large wave and not come up. Jumping fully clothed into the water to help, he reached the man just as another wave engulfed them. Similarly, God puts believers in the right place to reach people drowning in sin. We have the life-saving answer in Jesus if we’ll be ready when the opportunity arises. (PSG, p. 37)
As the new church continued to grow, Peter and John took on natural positions of leadership. They, along with John’s brother, James, had been leaders of the Twelve. So, it makes sense that these members of Jesus’s “inner circle” would be among the primary shepherds of the new church.
In a continuation of the practice reported in Acts 2, the Christian believers were still visiting the temple for regular times of prayer. It should be noted that the members of the early church were not going up to the temple for sacrifice. Jesus had already presented Himself as the final sacrifice, so offering animals was no longer necessary. Instead, the Christians in Jerusalem would visit the temple to focus on prayer and evangelism.
One day, Peter and John were heading into the temple for one of these prayer meetings when they encountered a man who had been unable to walk his entire life. Someone had placed him at the Beautiful Gate, one of the primary entries for the temple, and he had been begging from people as they approached (Acts 3:2). When the apostles came along, Peter told the man that they had no money to give. Instead, Peter gave him so much more. In Jesus’s name, he commanded the beggar to get up and walk (3:6). The man immediately obeyed, and he quickly went from walking to leaping, praising God the whole time (3:8).
Peter’s miracle by the Spirit’s power was similar to the healings of Jesus in that the man was healed completely. It was also similar because the one who was healed praised and gave glory to God. It is different, though, since Peter clearly acted under Jesus’s authority and in Jesus’s name. Jesus never needed to appeal to anyone or anything outside Himself.
As people saw that the lame man had been healed, they were “filled with awe and astonishment” (3:10). The astonishment gave Peter and John a chance to speak about the power of God and to challenge the people gathered to believe that Jesus really was the Messiah they had been seeking.
The crowd met the apostles at a place called Solomon’s Colonnade. In this area of the temple, rabbis often met with their disciples for teaching and dialogue. God used this area dedicated to the study of the law to reveal how Jesus was the One who fulfilled all that teaching. He was the One the Torah and the prophets had anticipated.
In the end, another five thousand people were added to the church that day. God continued to work through the apostles as they declared that the messianic age has come. Hope, life, and restoration are found in Jesus alone.
Read Acts 3:1-4:4. What elements of this story reveal God’s sovereign plan? How was Jesus’s name glorified in the healing, the Scriptures, and the salvation of the masses? (PSG, p. 38)
EXPLORE THE TEXT
12 When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him. 14 You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. 15 You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.”
(v. 12) Fellow Israelites: Just as in Acts 2, Peter found common ground. Peter was a Jew, and he never tried to separate himself from other Israelites. Instead, he identified with them and their desire to experience the Messiah. In truth, the early church did not preach a new religion. Jesus was the One the Israelites had longed to see.
(v. 12) Amazed: Verse 11 stated that the people in the temple were astonished. Peter used a similar Greek word when he questioned the people’s amazement. He also took advantage of this captivated audience to share the gospel. Our lives should be amazing to others, as well. We might never heal a lame man, but we can draw people’s attention through lives that point others to Jesus.
Our own power or godliness
Peter made in abundantly clear that he did not heal the man through his own power. Peter had no reason to brag or bring attention to himself. He also could not claim any special form of godliness. Peter was working through the power of the Holy Spirit and pointing people to the Savior.
(v. 13) God of our ancestors: Peter pointed out that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had glorified Jesus through His resurrection. Once again, Peter demonstrated that the faith of their ancestors had found its fulfillment in Jesus.
(v. 14) Holy and Righteous One: Peter did not skirt the issue of the Jews’ responsibility in Jesus’s death. Christ had been denied by those who claimed to be living righteous lives. They believed that they were set apart because they were loyal to the law. In reality, their righteousness amounted to nothing because they had missed the One who truly was Holy and Righteous. In their zeal to protect the law, they rejected the Messiah.
(v. 15) Source of life: Jesus died a sacrificial death even though He is the source of life. Peter reminded his audience that they had demanded the release of a murderer instead of Jesus (v. 14). In their rush to condemn Jesus, the Jews chose Barabbas instead (Luke 23:18-25; John 18:39-40).
(v. 15) God raised from the dead: God raised Jesus to display His power over death and sin. Peter and the other apostles were witnesses to the resurrected Christ, and they shared what they knew from experience. One great irony of the Christian faith is that the Jews’ failure to recognize their Messiah led to His death. Of course, in an even greater irony, His death paved the way for our life.
(v. 16) Faith: The instrument by which this man was healed, and by which we are saved, is faith in Jesus. Elaborate ceremonies and prayer services do not heal people, and works do not save people. Only Jesus ultimately heals, and only Jesus saves.
(v. 16) Perfect health: We may suffer sickness, but, one day, those in Christ Jesus will be healed fully. This man’s health had been restored, but he still died at some point. For him, the most important healing came to his soul, not his body.
17 “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets ?- ?that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 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. 21 Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning.”
(v. 17) Ignorance: The Israelites had denied Jesus and handed Him to the Romans to be crucified. Despite their guilt, Peter acknowledged that they had acted in ignorance. While the Jews condemned an innocent man and released a murderer in His place, they did not realize that the innocent man was the Messiah.
God’s sovereignty
Acts of ignorance and sin led to the fulfillment of God’s plan. God stands sovereign over all things, and He has the divine ability to orchestrate His purposes apart from any human action. This is a part of His providence, His unseen work to bring about our good and His glory.
God’s complete sovereignty and human responsibility, while seemingly contradictory, are actually compatible. This reality can be seen throughout the Bible whenever God used human beings to accomplish His purposes. One of the clearest cases is in the story of Joseph, where his brothers’ plan to destroy his life was used by God to save an untold number of lives. This included the lives of Joseph’s brothers and their families (Gen. 50:20).
(v. 18) All the prophets: The Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah are not limited to a few proof texts. Jesus fulfilled hundreds of Old Testament prophecies. In fact, the entire Old Testament testified about Him (Luke 24:44). The apostles struggled to understand this while Jesus was on earth, but the Spirit’s work allowed them to see connections they had missed in the past.
(v. 18) Messiah: The word Messiah highlights its clear connection to the Old Testament. The Israelites were expecting the Messiah to come and restore the Davidic kingdom. This would require a military deliverer who could drive out the Romans. Peter emphasized that Jesus was building an eternal, spiritual kingdom.
(v. 19) Repent: The Greek word indicates change. Specifically, it relates to a change of mind or a redirection of purpose. In some cases, it suggests a change that occurs when one person spends time with another person.
In this context, an experience with Jesus transforms every aspect of our lives. Peter called his listeners to repentance, even though some of their sin had been committed in ignorance. Ignorance is never an excuse for sinfulness.
(v. 19) Wiped out: Being in right relationship with God is about more than forgiveness, but we should never diminish the blessings of having our sins wiped out. The original Greek means to erase, cancel, or obliterate. The removal is complete.
(v. 20) Seasons of refreshing: When we come to Jesus, we come on His terms, leading to a time of rest and refreshing. Luke’s wording suggests a person who was suffocating finding relief from a breath of fresh air. That’s the kind of life-giving renewal God offers those who come to Him.
(v. 21) Restoration: While Jesus’s immediate work in our lives brings refreshment (v. 20), His ultimate goal for us (and all of creation) is restoration. The word here suggests a return to what is appropriate, and it is used nowhere else in Scripture.
The precise time of restoration is unknown to us (Acts 1:7), but that does not affect our commission to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (1:8).
$$22 “Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. 23 And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people. 24 In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also foretold these days. 25 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. 26 God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.”
(v. 22) Moses said: Peter pointed to Moses’s prophetic word in Deuteronomy 18 about the Messiah. There are at least two key takeaways from Peter’s reference here. First, the early church accepted Moses as the author of the Torah. Some contemporary scholars dismiss the idea that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, but Jesus and the apostles taught that he did. Second, they trusted Scripture as the final authority for faith. Likewise, we should depend on the Bible to inform our doctrine and our practice.
(v. 23) Completely cut off: The idea relates to being annihilated, rooted out, or exterminated. In Moses’s day, the law required all people to observe the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:26-32). Anyone violating the restrictions of that holy day were subject to death. In the context of Acts 3, people would not be executed, but those rejecting the Messiah and refusing to repent would have no place in the people of God. This “eternal death” is actually worse than the physical death.
(v. 25) Sons of the prophets: Peter’s audience was connected by both blood and covenant to the Old Testament prophets. As students of the law, they would have known what these spokesmen had preached and predicted. By reminding them of their ancestral and covenantal relationship, Peter challenged them to interpret all the events related to Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection through those prophecies.
(v. 25) All the families of the earth: Peter noted that Old Testament promises were not for their ancestors alone (see Gen. 12:1-3). Peter declared that all the prophets pointed to Jesus. The emphasis on all the families also means the blessing of the Messiah would come to Gentiles as well as Jews.
(v. 26) God raised up: This could refer to the resurrection of Jesus (as in v. 15), to Jesus’s death (raised on the cross), or to Jesus’s entire life and ministry. It seems best to take it as a reference to Jesus’s entire life and ministry, since the next phrase is that God sent him. (See John 20:21.)
(v. 26) Turning: God’s Servant was raised up and sent to the people of Israel so that they might turn from their sin and be His messengers to the world. The use of turning here recalls Peter’s earlier plea for the people to repent. Saving faith always includes turning from sin and turning to Christ.
Evil ways
The original Greek word used here is connected with the word for “pain.” While all sin leads to pain (and even death, Rom. 6:23), we sometimes ignore the consequences of our actions and attitudes or pretend the rules don’t apply to us.
Today, the idea of personal evil is not popular. We tend to shift blame to our environment, friends, or families. We also compare our sins, saying we’re not as bad as others. In the Bible, though, sin is more than simple mistakes or errors in judgment. Sin is a violation of God’s perfect law and rebellion against the Perfect Lawgiver.
The Scriptures
All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation. (See Luke 24:44-46; 2 Timothy 3:15.)
Compare and contrast Bible verses.
Read the following passages, then compare and contrast the way in which different individuals shared the gospel throughout the book of Acts: 2:14-41; 3:11-26; 7:1-53; 13:15-48; 17:22-34. What central elements are consistent in each of these presentations? How do the approaches differ?