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ACTS 3

Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.

The Jews had 3 hours of prayer. Nine in the morning, at noon and at three O'clock in the afternoon. The 9th hour is the one at three O'clock.

Acts 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

The gate was of brass about 31x62 feet.

Acts 3:3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

It was a custom to take money to the temple to give to the poor but the apostles didn't have money to give but something greater.

Acts 3:7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God:
10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

Maybe we would have more healing today if we would have the attitude that Peter and John had. They absolutely refused to accept adoration from these people. They made it quite clear that the man's healing did not come about by any holiness or power they had in themselves. We must return to the days when we give God all the glory bringing people to Him and not to ourselves.

God is all in all. God is the one that saves, heals and gives the power to change lives. We are His vessels. Jesus said though, that signs shall follow those that believe. So unbelief is a great hindrance to these signs. It is true that in the latter day, false signs and wonders will occur to get people to follow after another besides Jesus, but we are never to follow signs or allow signs to cause us to follow an individual, we are to follow Christ. Signs however, should be following all who believe and walk in the truth.

God gives us a list of the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the spirit should be within those that have signs following them. If we see someone supposedly able to heal the sick and his life is full of idolatry, greed and sexual immorality, we do not follow him, he has no fruit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance which means self-control. A true servant of God is humble, meek and will never accept the worship of men for what God has done.

Notice the grateful man's reaction to receiving healing from God. He jumped and leaped for joy praising God. He was saved as well as healed.

Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

In His name, the name of Jesus, through faith in His authority given to Him by God our Father, was this man healed. It was not under the spelling of His name but the power and authority behind His name. We call Him Jesus but in Hebrew, He was Yeshua. It is who He is, not the actual spelling of His name here. His named might be spelled differently in other languages. It is Jesus to us in the United States. In His name, not Peter and not John as precious as those faithful brethren were, they were not the healers. They were not faith healers. God is the healer.

Acts 3:17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Notice that first of all Peter seemed to be lashing out at the Jews for killing Jesus and if we stopped at verse 16, that is the idea we would get. However if we read verse 17 and 18 we see that all this fulfills scripture and that it was supposed to happen so that many could be saved from sin and inherit eternal life. We are never to hate Jews living today for what happened over 2000 years ago. It was supposed to happen or no flesh would ever be saved. One thing I might add here is that we are not supposed to hate someone for what their ancestors did anyway.

Repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out. If we do not repent and if we are not converted to Jesus Christ our sins will remain and we will die in sin. If we are "in sin" at the time of our death, we will not be saved. We must try our best to get people to repent if they are still living in sin. Jesus did not come to save us in our sins but He came to save us from our sins. Sin is transgression of the Law of God. If we have broken just one of those laws, we have sinned and sin is indwelling within us. Jesus came to free us from sin. To repent means to turn from sin and change. We must be converted and change by allowing the Sprit of God to enter our lives and change us from death unto life. It is not just a mental assent to the existence of one called Jesus. It is not just changing religions from Jewish to Christian or from being an atheist to becoming a Christian. Salvation is more than an outward religion, it is a new life in the Holy Spirit.

Acts 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

When the gospel is preached to the entire word and the time is right and all is fulfilled, Jesus will return this time to judge the world and bring vengeance upon those who opposed the gospel of Jesus and who persecuted those that preach and teach the word of God.

Acts 3:22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

Whatever Jesus says we must listen to. Do we know what He said? Do we just read one verse and do not heed all the others. For articles on what Jesus actually said since it has so much to do with our eternal salvation. For a series on the words of Jesus follow the link.

Acts 3:22 is a fulfillment of

Deuteronomy 18:15 The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;

God sent the only way of salvation. There is no other way no matter what anyone says.

Acts 3:23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

If we ignore Jesus, we will be lost. I didn't say this, the bible said it. We have to be careful with verse 23. All those who do not hear Jesus Christ and do not receive Him will be cut off. This is not a license for the church or any religious group to take up the sword and bring vengeance upon those that do not know God. The judgment has to come from God. We cannot do this ahead of time like many have done. That is not our job. Our job is to spread the gospel. We are not to punish the disobedient. If we try to do this, we will harm the innocent. It has been done. Jesus said to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. He said to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. When someone rejects our message, we simply move on to someone else and let God do the judging.

Acts 3:24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

The main purpose was to turn us from iniquity. This hope was given to the Jews first. We can't stay in sin and ignore the word of God and still expect to have eternal life. We are to "TURN FROM" our iniquities and let Jesus remove it from our lives by faith in Him to be able to do this. We can't do this without Him for there is no remission of sins without Jesus. Without His Holy Spirit we can't be delivered from sin. The Holy Spirit is that living water than cleanses us from sin. The word of God is also that living water. We need this cleansing to be able to enter into eternal life. DC

ACTS 4