And all the people saw him walking and praising God;
The healing at the temple gate did not stay a private moment between two apostles and a beggar. Verse 9 turns to the crowd: everyone gathered for prayer sees a man they had walked past for years, now on his feet and praising God.
The setting itself ruled out any suspicion of a trick.
Notice, Peter had not called a healing meeting: it was a matter done personally outside, yet visible to all. The people too were well acquainted with the former condition of the man, so there could be no deception: they were filled with amazement.
Two things were on display at once — a body that worked and a heart that was glad. The crowd could measure both against everything they remembered of him.
It happened in broad daylight. The man who had been lame, and was well known to be lame, went in with the crowd. He showed everyone watching his new powers, for he walked; and he showed his joy, for he was praising God. He did hold on to Peter and John, but not to hold himself up. He thought of them as the men who had done him good, so he naturally stayed close to them.
The man was clinging to Peter and John, yet the verse says the crowd saw him praising God. That is where a work done in the name of Jesus always lands.
Look at the effect of that healing, how it brings glory to God. "All the people saw him walking and praising God." There was glory to God. Having the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth here on earth produces glory to God. It also sets the world ablaze against the poor vessel, the honoured vessel. There was no poverty there. There is poverty in silver and gold; but there is no poverty in the name of Jesus. There is rejoicing, blessing and light in having that name.
Christ was no longer walking the streets of Jerusalem. That absence is part of the point.
It was indeed a sign perfectly suited to wake up the Jews. It proved God's grace toward their complete weakness, and it displayed the power of the risen and glorified Messiah. It did so all the more because it was not His presence, but His answer from on high to the power of His name, called on by His servant on earth. If the name of Jesus had such instant effect for the lame man, what would not follow if Israel believed in that name?
Amazement is not the same as faith. This man's new strength turned at once into worship, and that had a message for the crowd.
First he is lifted; then he leaps up and stands; and now he enters the temple as a true worshipper. It is a simple, natural picture: released from a lifelong bondage, every movement is a new joy to him, a leap of the heart to God. The people recognise with amazement this change from helplessness to overflowing life. A sad reminder of the ruin they would rather believe they had escaped! It will be well if they let this preach to them their need of a Saviour, while they listen to the assurance that He has indeed come.
The leaping was the first burst; the walking was what everybody kept seeing. One writer sets this man beside another man healed at a pool called Bethesda.
It could be said of the man healed at the pool of Bethesda, as it was of this man in the temple courts, "All the people saw him walking and praising God." Both had been lifted up out of the mud, and the way they walked was a growing testimony to the name of the Lord Jesus.
The people who knew this man were stunned, and that has not changed.
And if you were to be converted, my friend, all your friends would be amazed. If you turned up as a completely new man, wouldn't they be thoroughly surprised? And what a testimony that would be to the power of Christ! I do not know anything more powerful, as a testimony to the grace of God, than the glad, wholehearted life of a devoted Christian.
- Seen — the cure happened outdoors, in daylight, with no meeting arranged and no chance of deception.
- Known — the crowd could name the man. He had begged at that gate for years, and now his joy was as visible as his steps.
- Praised — he held on to Peter and John, but the praise went to God. That is what the name of Jesus produces, and what turns the world against those who use it.
- Offered — the sign was Christ's answer from heaven to His own name. It proved God's grace toward Israel's weakness and invited them to believe.
- Repeated — the walk, not just the leap, is the lasting testimony. A changed life still amazes the people who knew you.
and they recognised him, that it was *he* who sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
The crowd at the temple knew this man's face. They had walked past him at the gate again and again. Verse 10 catches the moment recognition turned into shock, and that shock gave Peter his audience.
The setting made the healing impossible to explain away.
Notice, Peter had not called a healing meeting: it was a matter done personally outside, yet visible to all. The people too were well acquainted with the former condition of the man, so there could be no deception: they were filled with amazement.
The word behind "amazement" here is a strong one, used elsewhere in Scripture for states in which a person is lifted out of ordinary awareness altogether.
The word is ἔκστασις (ekstasis), "ecstasy." In it, so to speak, the mind is carried beyond the body. Mark 5:42 translates it "astonishment," and Acts 3:10 "amazement." It appears as "trance" when Peter had the vision of the sheet let down from heaven, and when Paul in the temple saw the Lord and heard Him speak to him. The Greek Old Testament uses the same word for the deep sleep of Adam and of Abram.
The verse names him by what he used to be: the man begging at the gate. That daily scene at the temple door exposed what the temple could not do.
One of the most familiar figures at the gate of the Temple was a helpless beggar. Priests and Levites passed him again and again and left him as they found him. Crowds of worshippers came to the morning and evening sacrifices, but none of them could raise him up. He was a standing witness that the Temple's ceremonies had no power to relieve human misery. His helpless state pictured the condition of Israel, and of all people. As the Scriptures say, they have no strength to give God what is His due, or to free themselves from the slavery sin has bound them in.
Commentators read the miracle as an argument aimed at the nation. What made it so pointed was that Christ was not physically present; the power came in response to His name spoken by a servant on earth.
It was a sign well suited to wake up the Jews. It bore witness to the grace of God toward their utter weakness. It showed the power of the risen and glorified Messiah. This was all the stronger because Christ was not there in person. It was His answer from heaven to the power of His name, called on by His servant on earth. If the name of Jesus had such instant power for the lame man, think what would follow if Israel believed in that name.
The crowd's amazement was real, but Peter treats it as a symptom, not a success. His first words to them ask why they are marvelling at all.
Peter noticed how the crowds were amazed, and he says to them, "Why do you wonder at this?" It was only what Christ was worthy of. Peter had this in his soul: My Master is worthy of anything, there is no limit to the power of His name. The people were amazed because they had no faith. Christians often marvel now when the Lord works with power, and the reason is the same: they have so little faith. They were looking at the instrument — a very foolish thing to do in divine things.
That misplaced gaze put the preachers themselves in real danger.
They all crowd round Peter, and they look at him. Here is a wonderful man… This is the moment of danger for Peter; but how does he meet it? It finds him dependent, it finds him self-emptied… It is not our own power. It is not about our holiness. Nothing of the kind. It has just to do with us in this way, that we are vessels in His hand, empty enough of self for Him to make use of us.
The same reaction still follows when someone becomes a different person.
And if you were to be converted, my friend, all your friends would be amazed. If you appeared as a totally new man, would they not be thoroughly surprised? And what a testimony it would be to the power of Christ! I do not know anything more powerful, as a testimony to the grace of God, than the fervent, joyful life of a devoted Christian.
- Helpless. The beggar at the gate showed that the temple's routines could not raise a single man who lay at its door.
- Named. What lifted him was not the power or holiness of the preachers. It was the name of the risen Christ, answering from heaven.
- Known. The whole city knew who he was, so no one could stage or deny the change.
- Amazed. Their wonder stopped the crowd. Yet it was wonder born of little faith, fixed on the instrument instead of Christ.
- Witness. A changed life is still one of the strongest witnesses to the grace of Christ.
And as he held Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico which is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.
A crowd comes running, and the temple's covered walkway fills up. At the centre of it a man who had never walked before is holding on to Peter and John — and Peter is about to tell the crowd whose power healed him.
His grip was not the grip of a man still unsteady on his feet:
He needed no arm to lean on. He needed no crutch. He walked with no unsteady step. He had been carried to the Temple grounds, but he entered the Beautiful gate a healthy man, walking and leaping and praising God. This happened in broad daylight, in the most public place in the city, in front of a crowd who were about to pass through that gate to pray. The man everyone knew as the lame beggar walked in with them, showing all who saw him his new strength, for he walked, and his joy, for he was praising God. He held Peter and John, it is true, but not to support himself. He saw them as the men who had done him good, and so he clung to them.
What began as holding on became testimony:
Then you find that the man holds on to Peter and John. He knows where the power is, and I do not wonder at his keeping close to them. The next day, when they were arrested, this man went boldly into the council. He said nothing, yet he became a witness to the power of the Name of Jesus, because he was the one who had been healed.
The sign was aimed at the whole nation:
It was a sign perfectly fitted to wake the Jews up. It showed the grace of God toward their utter weakness. It showed the power of the risen and glorified Messiah. And it showed it all the more because Christ was not there in person. This was His answer from heaven to the power of His name, which His servant on earth had called on. If the name of Jesus had such instant power for the lame man, what would faith in that name not bring if Israel believed?
The porch had its own history, and crowds often gathered there:
This porch, or covered walkway, was said to be a piece of Solomon's own work that had survived destruction until then. The Lord was walking in this same porch when the Jews asked Him whether He was the Christ (John 10:23). People often gathered in this spot, and the Apostles were there again later on (Acts 5:12), before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, ordered them to be beaten.
Since He last walked there, Christ's place had changed:
And the porch that had seen the rejection of the grace of a humbled Christ now sees the grace of an exalted One. Ah! His place had changed and His circumstances had altered, but His heart remained the same. He had made the lame to walk when here on earth; He does the same for them now that He has gone to heaven!
The man's refusal to leave the apostles' side is what makes the preaching possible:
Because of his deformity the lame man had been under certain restrictions in the law. Now grace had removed his deformity, and with it the restriction, so he could enter the temple freely. And as he held on to the Apostles, no one could miss the men through whom his deliverance had come. This gave Peter the opportunity of testimony. He at once put himself and John out of the picture, so that the glorified Jesus might fill it.
The name behind the healing was the name they had rejected:
God was publicly honouring the name of the One they had murdered! God and man were openly at odds about Jesus. Nothing has changed to this hour. The world has not changed its mind about the Crucified One. If it had, it would stop being "the world." The world always despises and hates the One whom God loves and exalts.
- Cure. The healing happened in broad daylight, at a crowded temple gate. It was a sign to wake a nation up to what the name of the risen Christ can do for their weakness.
- Cling. The man held on to Peter and John out of gratitude, not for support. He knew where the power was.
- Crowd. His grip made the apostles impossible to overlook. The crowd that ran into Solomon's porch became the audience for Peter's sermon.
- Contrast. In that same porch people once rejected Christ's claim as He walked there in humility. Now the exalted Christ shows the same mercy from heaven.
- Christ. Peter stepped out of the picture so the glorified Jesus could fill it. God was honouring in public the name the people had condemned.
And Peter, seeing it, answered the people, Men of Israel, why are ye astonished at this? or why do ye gaze on us as if we had by our own power or piety made him to walk?
A crowd has just run together in Solomon's Porch, staring at the two men who had healed a beggar lame from birth. His first words do not explain the miracle. They turn the crowd's eyes away from him, and his question touches the place where people so often get stuck.
The healing had made Peter the centre of attention. That is the moment when a servant of God is most at risk. The verse shows how Peter met it.
Now look at the twelfth verse. There is the great point of it all, where people so often get stuck. They all crowd round Peter, and they look at him. Here is a wonderful man... This is the moment of danger for Peter; but how does he meet it? How does it find him? It finds him dependent, it finds him self-emptied... It is not our own power, it is not anything to do with our holiness, nothing of the kind. It has to do with us only in this way: we are vessels in His hand, empty enough of self for Him to use us. We are vessels in His hand, willing to be nothing — like a spade, an instrument in the hand of the One who uses it.
Only minutes earlier Peter had told the beggar to look at him and John. Now he says the opposite.
At the start Peter and John had said, "Look at us," but only to turn the man's attention to another. Peter knew his own poverty well, and he had no doubt of the riches of his Lord when he said, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" The people were full of wonder at the miracle, and he is quick to deny himself.
The verse pairs power with "piety." Older translations say "holiness" here, but the Greek word behind it has a different sense.
The words eusebeia and eusebeo mean "to exercise piety, reverence." They point to a reverential sense of having to do with God. The creature should show it to the Creator, and it should mark the saints above all towards God their Father and towards the Lord Jesus... It is rendered "holiness" in Acts 3:12 and "worship" in Acts 17:23. In all other places it is "godliness." "Piety" is a better translation.
So Peter turns down both halves of the credit: the power and the devotion. One writer sets him beside Simon Magus, a magician who appears later in Acts.
They would take no credit for themselves. They would not let the people think, even for a moment, that they were something extraordinary. How different this was from Simon Magus, who used satanic power and made himself out to be someone great.
Peter's first question is not modesty alone. Given the name he had called on, a healing like this is no surprise.
Peter says to them, "Why do you wonder at this?" It was only what Christ was worthy of. Peter had this in his soul: My Master is worthy of anything, and there is no limit to the power of His name. The people wondered because they had no faith. Christians often wonder in the same way now, when the Lord works with power, and the reason is that they have so little faith. They were looking at the instrument — a very foolish thing to do in divine things.
With himself out of the picture, Peter points to the God of Israel's fathers. The title he gives Jesus here is worth noticing.
There was nothing unclear about this. And it all fits together. It is the God of our fathers who glorified the Messiah, His Servant Jesus. "Son" is not the thought here, but Jehovah's "Servant" as in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52, 53. The Jews had denied Him before the Roman judge, at the very time that judge was willing, and even determined, to let Him go.
What Peter refused in the porch is a standing rule for anyone God uses.
The truth, we judge, is this. The power that really does God's work comes from God and not from us. So the first thing that matters is that the work should plainly come by God's power and go to God's glory. Ability, gift and intelligence in the servant are good things, and we should not despise them. But if a servant with them is at all tempted to lean on them, or, worse still, to show them off, God will pass him by. He will use some foolish or unimportant instrument instead, to our astonishment.
- Danger — Public success is the servant's most dangerous moment. The crowd's stare found Peter already self-emptied and dependent.
- Denial — He turns down both halves of the credit: not his power, and not his piety. "Piety" reads that word better than "holiness."
- Direction — The man who had said "Look at us" now says the reverse. He moves every eye from the instrument to his Lord.
- Deficit — Their amazement exposed their unbelief. Nothing done in that name is more than Christ is worthy of.
- Displacement — Peter names the God of the fathers as the One who glorified His Servant Jesus. And God still passes by the servant who parades his gift.
The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom *ye* delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when *he* had judged that he should be let go.
Peter has just healed a lame man, and a crowd runs to him in the temple. His first move is to turn every eye off himself and onto the One God has glorified. The verse ties three things together: the God of Israel's ancestors, the title "servant," and the crowd's part in handing Jesus to Pilate.
The miracle carried no credit for the men through whom it came. One writer says what the miracles were for, and who they pointed to.
These miracles brought no honour at all to the men who performed them, though of course they proved the divine character of their ministry. They were wholly a testimony borne to the Living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all He taught... So in Acts 3:13, Peter refuses all regard for himself or John, putting Jesus alone forward. The Lord's power and resurrection are what the miracles testified to.
Peter names God by the three ancestors every listener revered. The point is continuity: the God of their fathers is at work in front of them, and now He works for Jesus.
The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of their fathers, was working still among them. But now He was working for the glory of His servant Jesus. Peter is bold indeed. In the temple court he stated that Jesus, the rejected and crucified One, was Jehovah's servant.
Some older translations read "His Son Jesus" here. Commentators say the word is "Servant" — the title Isaiah used.
It is the God of our fathers who glorified the Messiah, His Servant Jesus. "Son" is not the thought, but Jehovah's "Servant," as in Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52, 53. The Jews had denied Him before the Roman judge, who was willing, in fact determined, to let Him go.
This was not a gap in Peter's knowledge. God unfolded the glory of Christ by stages, and this sermon stands at an early one.
We know Him — and the Spirit of God, who wrote this book, knew Him infinitely better — to be the Son of God. But we must always hold to what God says. God's testimony had not yet set out all the glory of Christ, above all in dealing with the Jews. He brought it out by stages. The more man's unbelief grew, the more God defended the Lord's glory.
"Glorified" is not a compliment paid to a dead teacher. It describes where Jesus now is, and it explains where the lame man's strength came from.
Everything is now connected with the glory of the Lord Jesus. He entered that glory after His sufferings and death, and because of them... Peter credits the healing of the lame man at the gate of the temple to the power of Jesus glorified. This marks the whole teaching of the apostles. A glorified Christ is the source of every blessing, and of the power that shows it, through the Holy Spirit.
Pilate wanted to let Jesus go; the crowd would not have it. One writer weighs the guilt of everyone involved and finds it uneven.
All are guilty, but there are degrees of guilt. Herod was a vile, pleasure-loving man. He would mock the Lord and treat Him as nothing, yet he finds nothing in Him deserving death. Pilate will go further than Herod. He will hand Christ over to the murderous hatred of the Jews. But he has no personal hatred, and he will at least make some weak effort to save One he knows is innocent from death.
Notice who Peter does not blame. He passes over the obvious culprit and speaks to the people standing in front of him.
He does not speak of Judas, though no doubt Judas was the immediate instrument of handing Him over... they denied the One whom he declares to be the Messiah, and whom God declares to be the Holy One and the Just.
There is one more layer. The man who charged Israel with denying Jesus had denied Him himself.
What a living picture Peter gives in Acts 3:13 of a worshipper once purged, with a clear conscience! How else could he charge the men of Israel with denying Jesus? Had he not denied Him openly, recently, and repeatedly with oaths? Now he was so completely cleansed by the Saviour's blood that he boldly charged them with that sin. If it had not been wiped away, he would have been ashamed to whisper the words.
- Name: Peter lets no one credit him or John. The miracle points to Jesus.
- Covenant: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is still at work among Israel. Now He works for the glory of Jesus.
- Servant: Commentators read "Servant" here, not "Son" — the title Isaiah used. God unfolded the glory of Christ by stages.
- Glory: A glorified Christ is the source of every blessing and of the power that shows it. That is why a lame man walks.
- Grace: The man who made this charge had denied Jesus himself. The Saviour's blood had cleansed him, so he could name the sin out loud.
But *ye* denied the holy and righteous one, and asked that a man [that was] a murderer should be granted to you;
Peter is speaking to a crowd at the temple, where a lame man has just been healed. He turns their wonder into a charge: the God of their fathers glorified Jesus, and they disowned Him. The verse names what they did by naming who He was — and it names the man they wanted instead.
Heaven had used the first of these titles for Jesus before Peter did, and so had His enemies:
He Himself was the Holy One. "The child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God," the angel said to Mary (Luke 1:35). The very demons in Capernaum said to Him, "I know who you are — the Holy One of God." And what charge did Peter lay against the Jews after Pentecost? "You denied the Holy and Righteous One" (Acts 3:14). The fact was that the Lord Jesus had been presented to His people as the Holy One.
The verse adds a second title: Righteous. Kelly sets both titles against what Israel asked for, and against what God then did:
How desperate their position! They denied the Holy and Righteous One (Isaiah 53:11). They asked for a murderer as a favour. God was clearly against them, for He raised from the dead the Author of life whom they killed.
Peter does not soften the swap. He sets the man they asked for against the One they refused:
The apostle put their guilty deed in the strongest form. They had deliberately preferred a taker of life, in the person of Barabbas, to the divine Author of life — the Son of God!
The murderer they asked for was Barabbas, and his record was public:
John 18:40 describes him as a "robber," and Matthew 27:16-26 calls him "a notorious prisoner." He had started an uprising and had committed murder (Mark 15:7-15). Yet the Jews, led by the chief priests and elders, asked for this man to be released instead of the Lord Jesus. Why they asked for this particular prisoner is not known. But their choice shows their ungodliness in the clearest way. They could choose such a notorious criminal over the Lord of life and glory, their Messiah.
The man making this charge had denied Jesus with oaths only weeks earlier:
And who is this that so boldly charged the Jews with denying their own Messiah? The very man who not many weeks before had denied Him with oaths. But Peter broke down at once in a sorrow that produced repentance according to God. He judged not only the ripe fruit but the root of his sin. Now restored, his feet washed, he is fully cleansed from the defilement. So he can charge the men of Israel with the very sin he had so recently been freed from himself, without a blush or a waver... None can preach, any more than worship, like a soul once cleansed, having no more conscience of sins.
The choice made in front of Pilate was not only Jerusalem's crime:
Pilate might wash his hands. The people might say, "His blood be on us and on our children." But the fact remains: the world united to murder Him. The world, therefore, to this day stands charged with the murder of the Son of God.
Peter piles the charge high, but not to close the door:
Israel broke and despised everything that should have bound them. Their act held everything that could magnify their rejection of Him. And yet, as the whole passage shows, this very sin of theirs, this very killing of the Prince of life, was only the occasion of fresh grace. The rock in the wilderness, when struck, poured out the refreshing streams the people needed. In the same way, this murdered Prince of life now stands before them as the One who brings more than gifts of healing. Through Him God offers Israel here and now all the things He had spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.
- Denied. They refused Him as the Holy and Righteous One — the very One heaven, and even demons, had already named.
- Preferred. They asked for a man guilty of uprising and murder as a favour, and they killed the Author of life. That was the trade.
- Exposed. The choice made at Pilate's seat was not Jerusalem's alone — the world united in it and still stands charged.
- Cleansed. Peter could press this home without flinching. He had judged the root of his own denial, and he stood restored and clean.
- Offered. That same sin became the occasion of fresh grace. God held out to the guilty everything the prophets had promised.
but the originator of life ye slew, whom God raised from among [the] dead, whereof *we* are witnesses.
Peter stands in the temple courts after healing a lame man. He tells the crowd what they did to Jesus, what God did in reply, and who saw it.
Older translations read "Prince of life" where newer ones read "Author of life," and the writers quoted below use the older wording. The word behind that title also describes Christ in two other places.
The Greek word archēgos means "beginner, leader." In Acts 3:15 older translations say "prince," with "author" in the margin: the Lord Jesus is the originator of life. In Hebrews 12:2, the Lord Jesus is the "leader" and completer of faith: He began and finished the whole course. In Hebrews 2:10 older translations say "captain": He was the "leader" of their salvation through suffering.
Peter's charge has weight because of the choice behind it.
They had had before them "the Prince [Author] of life" and "a murderer;" that is, a taker of life. They killed the One and chose the other. Yet God had raised the One they killed, so they were caught red-handed in rebellion against God.
That choice was not a one-off failure by one crowd. One writer reads it as a test of the human heart itself:
It is the deep, full sifting of the heart of man, and it tells me that the heart of man in Luke 23 is exactly what it was in Genesis 3. Man in Genesis 3 preferred the lie of the serpent to the truth of God. Man here preferred a murderer to the Prince of Life!
The second half of the verse is not extra information. It is God taking a side.
When Peter says, You "killed the Prince of Life," I can imagine their souls trembling, because they knew it was true. No one could deny this charge from the Holy Spirit. True, He allowed Himself to be slain; but Peter says, You killed Him. Now look at the gulf between the world and God. See how the thoughts of the world stand against God's thoughts of Jesus, "whom God raised from the dead." Could there be a greater contrast? — You killed Him, but God raised Him from the dead.
"To this we are witnesses" was not a closing formality. It names the theme the first preachers kept returning to.
The apostles especially drew the earnest attention of those outside to His resurrection. It was one of the great subjects of early apostolic preaching (Acts 1:22; 2:24-32; 3:15; 4:2-10; 5:30). Much hangs on it. If the Lord is risen, it is because God has raised Him from the dead, and has thus openly taken up His cause. He is risen, not like Lazarus, Jairus' daughter, and others, to return to corruption, but never again to die (Acts 13:34). Death has no more power over Him. He is alive, then, forever — the living One. He was raised because it was not possible for death to hold Him. He was holy and righteous, and His resurrection proclaims that.
Notice who is making this charge.
And who is this that so boldly charged the Jews with denying their own Messiah? The very man who not many weeks before had denied Him with oaths. But Peter broke down at once. His sorrow produced repentance according to God, because he judged not only the ripe fruit of his sin but its root. Now he is restored, his feet washed. He is so completely cleansed from that defilement that he can charge the men of Israel with the very sin he had only just been freed from himself — without a blush or a waver. No one can preach, or worship, like a soul once cleansed, with no more conscience of sins.
The charge sounds crushing. One writer finds the ground of assurance inside it.
The certainty of salvation is something God reveals to me as a result of the work of Christ. If God says to me, You have killed the Prince of life, then by this very means I know that all my sins are washed out. God says, This is what I have done: I have washed out all your sins by the sin you committed in killing the Prince of life. Faith alone can make me understand that. The heart torments itself while the thing is simple.
- Author — The word means beginner or originator. Jesus starts life, and the same word names Him leader of faith and of salvation.
- Exchange — They chose a taker of life and killed the giver of life. Commentators see in that swap the human heart itself, not just one crowd.
- Answer — God raised the One they killed. The world's verdict on Jesus and God's verdict now stand in open opposition.
- Witness — The resurrection was the main theme of the first preaching. This risen One will never die again.
- Outcome — The charge is not the end. God washes sins away by that very sin — the killing of the Author of life. And the man preaching it had denied Him too.
And, by faith in his name, his name has made this [man] strong whom ye behold and know; and the faith which is by him has given him this complete soundness in the presence of you all.
Peter and John had just healed a man lame from birth. The crowd came running and stared at the two men as if the power were theirs. This verse is Peter's answer. In one sentence he moves the credit from the apostles to a Name, and to the faith that rested on it.
Peter had the whole crowd's attention. He used it to point away from himself.
God has fulfilled His word. God has given His Son. And Peter says, "Do not look at us, as if it had anything to do with our power or holiness." It is a wonderful thing to find a man actually in the presence of God in days like these. Here is a man in the presence of God, and as soon as God used him for blessing, he says, "Don't look at me. Look up there. Look at Him, the glorified One there, the despised One here. I am only the vessel through which it came."
Peter healed by calling on a name. Jesus never did.
When our Lord performed miracles He invoked no name as His authority for performing them. By contrast, Peter cured the lame beggar at the Beautiful gate of the temple by saying, "In the NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." He also took pains to tell the people that the miracle came not by his own power, but in "His [Christ's] NAME, … by faith in His NAME" (Acts 3:6, 16). At the raising of Lazarus our Lord cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." … He acted as a Divine Person.
Where the miracle happened mattered as much as how.
Inside the courts of the Lord's house, a miracle had taken place in the open, in the name of the One whom the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, had judged not long before to be a blasphemer worthy of death. And this is the God who never gave His glory to another. The controversy about His claim to be a Divine Person was more than settled, but in a way the Jews never expected. God had glorified His servant, Jesus of Nazareth, by allowing a miracle in His own house in that name. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the only one Peter had named to the lame man. So if His name had power in that holy place, with no mention of the God of Abraham, then the crucified One must be more than a mere man. By what had happened, God plainly owned Him as His equal.
The verse does not stop at the Name. It also says where the faith came from: it is "through Jesus." One writer names the source of that faith.
Second, faith in its own proper place, the gift of God, not of self.
One man stood up. Peter was speaking to a whole nation.
It was a sign perfectly suited to wake the Jews up. It proved the grace of God toward their utter weakness. It showed the power of the risen and glorified Messiah. And it did so all the more because Christ was not there in person. This was His answer from heaven to the power of His name, which His servant on earth had called on. If such was the instant power of the name of Jesus for the lame man, what would not follow faith in that name if Israel believed?
One writer turns from the healed man to the reader.
Only faith in His name can do anything now for you, my friend. It is His name, and faith in His name alone, that secures blessing for the soul. This man rose up and walked in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And I say to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise out of your bed of sins and come to Him. You may be saved this very moment if you have faith in the name of Jesus.
- The Name first. The power was not in Peter or John, but in the name of Jesus called on from earth and answered from heaven.
- The Name despised. The rulers had condemned Jesus of Nazareth. God honoured His name inside His own house.
- The Name received by faith. Faith comes second, in its proper place: the gift of God, not something produced from self.
- The Name proved. The result stood in front of everyone: a man once lame, now strong and in perfect health.
- The Name offered. One lame man walked. The same Name went out to a whole nation, and it still reaches anyone who trusts it.
And now, brethren, I know that ye did it in ignorance, as also your rulers;
The healing of the lame man has drawn a crowd. Peter has just charged them to their face with crucifying the Lord Jesus. Then the tone turns. He calls them brothers and says they acted in ignorance. Does ignorance make a crime smaller? And why would God say it at all?
This is no compliment. The people who should have known their Messiah understood Him least.
In one way this might make the degraded condition of God's ancient people worse; for how did they and their rulers come to be so ignorant? They knew neither the Scripture nor the power of God. They valued neither grace nor truth. They saw works and heard words such as no one had ever known before. Yet they were more stupid than the nations around them, duller than their own beasts of burden. But He who suffered for them on the cross prayed to His Father to forgive them, for they did not know what they were doing. And now the Holy Spirit, through the apostle, assures them that this was so, as a plea for divine compassion.
Writers tie this verse back to what Jesus prayed on the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Peter is not guessing at their motives. He is announcing a verdict.
After such a total condemnation of Israel we might have thought it was all over with that nation, and that God would step in to destroy them. But no. Through Peter, God made this known to the nation of Israel: because His Son had interceded for them on the cross, He was treating their terrible sin as a sin of ignorance and not as a wilful sin.
Israel's own law separated the killer who planned it from the one who did not. It gave the second man somewhere to run. Writers place the killing of Jesus in that second class.
What amazing grace this is! To our poor minds it looks as though they committed that terrible sin with open eyes! Peter took the same line as his Master did on the cross. Under the law the Lord drew a distinction between a manslayer and a murderer. For the murderer there was to be no mercy; for the manslayer there was safety in the cities of refuge (Num. 35). In grace God is pleased to regard Israel — the slayer of Jesus — as a manslayer. So there is still mercy for that blood-stained nation.
The law also appointed a sacrifice for sins done in ignorance. The timing is striking.
For sins of ignorance a sacrifice was available for Jews (Leviticus 5:14). In fact, their Messiah accomplished that sacrifice at the very time they were guilty of crucifying Him.
Being ignorant did not make them safe. It left them needing mercy, and that mercy needed Christ's prayer.
They were ignorant of what they were doing, and that is why He prayed for them. Yet their ignorance was no valid plea for acquittal in God's sight, so the Lord's intercession was needed. God does show mercy to those whose grave sins are done in ignorance of what pleases Him. Look at Paul. He thought he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. "I received mercy," he writes, "because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief." God could be gracious, but He could not gloss over his wrongdoing. The same is true of those who crucified His Son.
Peter has just made an accusation. Now the same sermon turns into comfort.
He has pressed their terrible sin home on the consciences of his hearers. Now he applies the healing, soothing balm of the gospel, in words of wonderful power and sweetness: "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled." Nothing can exceed the grace of this. It recalls Joseph's words to his troubled brothers: "It was not you that sent me here, but God."
God counted the sin as done in ignorance, so the sentence did not fall at once. Something far larger came instead.
They had indeed committed an unmatched crime in crucifying the Lord Jesus... But the vinedresser had pleaded for the barren fig tree (Luke 13:8). Their ignorance, pleaded by the Redeemer on the cross, is exactly what the Holy Spirit admits through Peter here. In answer to the intercession of Jesus they were forgiven so far as this: judgment did not fall at once, and full, free, absolute forgiveness was proclaimed to them on condition of their repentance.
- Charge. Peter first fixes the guilt for an unmatched crime: the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. He names the crime first, the ignorance second.
- Plea. The word "ignorance" is not their excuse. It is God honouring Christ's prayer, treating the nation's sin as a sin of ignorance and not a wilful one.
- Provision. Ignorance never acquits; it qualifies for mercy. The law gave the manslayer a city of refuge and the ignorant sinner a sacrifice — and their Messiah was making that sacrifice as they killed Him.
- Offer. Judgment did not fall at once, so Peter could proclaim full forgiveness to them, on one condition: repentance.
- Reach. Paul received mercy because he had acted in ignorance and unbelief. The same door stands open to anyone whose worst sin was done blindly.
but God has thus fulfilled what he had announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer.
Peter has just charged the crowd with crucifying their Messiah. Now he tells them God had announced that suffering long in advance — so what becomes of their guilt, and what does it open up for them?
Peter's answer starts with the prophets.
Again, as in his first sermon, Peter appeals to the Scriptures. What his hearers had done had not taken God by surprise, for He had before shown by the mouth of all His prophets that Christ should suffer. And He had fulfilled His word as to this, as He will fulfil every other word that He has spoken.
Commentators point to one gap in how the crowd read the prophets.
There was one thing they all seemed to fail to grasp about Christ: the necessity of His sufferings. It was foretold that the Christ would be the centre of all the coming glory. But it was also foretold — and here is where the difficulty came, a difficulty for thoughtful Jews even today — that "the Christ must suffer." They might believe all those glowing prophecies about Him, the throne, the dominion and the glory. But the word that He would be wounded for their transgressions and bruised for their iniquities they seemed unable to connect with the Messiah, the Christ who is yet to reign in glory.
Verse 18 follows straight on from Peter's word about their ignorance. That ignorance cuts two ways at once.
Then the apostle explains how they could do so dreadful a deed… In one way this might make the degraded condition of God's ancient people worse. How did they and their rulers come to be so ignorant? They knew neither the Scripture nor the power of God… But He who suffered for them on the cross prayed to His Father to forgive them, for they did not know what they were doing. Now the Holy Spirit through the apostle assures them that this was so, as a plea for divine compassion. That His Christ should suffer was no afterthought of God. He predicted it by all the prophets, and He fulfilled it. So the people must learn their blind wickedness; and so God would show His mercy, He who gave Christ as a propitiation for their offences.
Propitiation means a sacrifice that satisfies God about sin — here, the death they themselves brought about.
God's law drew a line between murder and a killing done without knowing.
Verse 17 shows that God was willing to treat their dreadful crime as a sin of ignorance. It was manslaughter, for which the law provides a city of refuge, and not murder. This was a direct answer to the prayer on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." By their sinful act God had accomplished His purpose about the suffering of Christ. So there was still an offer of mercy for them as a nation. Peter went on to make that offer. Everything hinged upon their repentance and conversion.
Under the law of Moses, a killer who did not mean to kill could flee to such a city and live. The timing of God's remedy is striking:
For sins of ignorance a sacrifice was available for Jews (Leviticus 5:14). In fact, that sacrifice was accomplished by their Messiah at the very time they were guilty of crucifying Him. God had declared this beforehand by His prophets. What they needed, then, was faith in this gracious Substitute, the one sacrifice to take away their sins.
Saying God announced it beforehand is not saying the men who did it were only playing a part written for them.
No doubt the purpose of God stands… But should this weaken our moral judgment of creature wickedness? Does it deny that Satan and man are responsible for all they do against Him, or that both must be punished for it? So Peter charges the men of Israel with the guilt of crucifying the Messiah… The holy and perfect word of God puts everything in its place, not one side only but both. God has His definite plan and foreknowledge. The Jews played their evil part, the Gentiles theirs… but in that very same act they fulfilled the prophets. That act gave occasion for God to display His holiest judgment and to accomplish the work of His grace.
- Foretold — God announced the sufferings of Christ through all the prophets. The cross took Him by no surprise, and it proves He keeps every word He speaks.
- Missed — a glorious Messiah they could accept; a wounded, bruised one they could not. That blind spot in their reading of the prophets became their crime.
- Fulfilled — God announced it and God accomplished it. Fulfilled prophecy never cancels guilt; both sides stand together, man's evil and God's plan.
- Covered — God treated the deed as done in ignorance, answering the Lord's prayer from the cross. That left them a refuge instead of a sentence.
- Offered — mercy still stood open to the nation, for God gave Christ as a propitiation for their offences. Everything hinged on their repentance.
Repent therefore and be converted, for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of refreshing may come from [the] presence of the Lord,
Peter speaks these words in Solomon's porch, to a crowd from the nation that had just crucified Jesus. His call ties a change in the hearers to a change in the world's future.
The verse gives one appeal in two words, and writers keep them distinct. Repentance is what the mind does; conversion is what the will does.
It is literally an after-thought, or changed thought. It is a judgment the mind forms on reflection, after it has already held another one. In Scripture it usually means the judgment I form in God's sight about my own past conduct and feelings... Conversion itself may follow repentance. By conversion I mean the full, deliberate turning of the heart to God. "Repent," says Peter, "and be converted." Conversion is the turning of the will to God.
The appeal in Acts 2 and the appeal here are not aimed at the same target. One gathered people out of the nation. This one puts a proposal to the nation itself.
Peter made a very remarkable proposal to Israel that day in Solomon's porch. In Acts 2 his appeal was to individuals, and those who responded at once stood apart from "this crooked generation." In Acts 3 the same preacher appealed to the nation as such... The heavens had received Him until the times of the restoring of all things. Now it was for Israel to say whether that time of universal blessing should begin at once.
After such a crime, an offer of blotted-out sins seems impossible. Commentators trace it back to what Jesus prayed on the cross.
Yet Israel is not at once set aside; on the contrary, "to the Jew first" the message of grace is proclaimed. Not only as individuals, but as a nation too... So, at the cross, the Lord intercedes: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Peter then proclaims to them that God accepted that prayer: "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers."
Some older translations link the two halves of the verse with the word "when." One writer works from a rendering that reads "so that," and draws out what that changes.
The verse ends with a promise, however. It does not say "when," but "so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus Christ, who was foreordained for you." Jesus had returned on high because the Jewish nation rejected Him. Yet the nation could still repent and turn to Him. If it did, God was ready to send Him back and bring in the times of kingdom refreshing. God made this promise in complete good faith. Yet He also knew that the nation as such would not change its mind about Christ. However rebellious Israel was, God would give them full opportunity to repent.
The blotting out is God's act, but it is not detached from what happens inside a person. One writer draws out both the ground of the pardon and the road to it.
They judge themselves before God and acknowledge their sins. Then divine grace blots those sins out, in the blood of their own Messiah. There is no other way. But oh, how moving beyond words for them above all people! But again, the power of the blood of Christ is precious. Yet no soul ever receives real blessing apart from the judgment of sin — of self — in the conscience.
The phrase is not vague comfort. It names a coming era, and it comes in a fixed order with the restoring of all things.
The times of refreshing would seem to be the gracious prelude to that great climax, "the times of restoration" of all things. Then righteousness shall reign. It would seem also that repentance and conversion of sinners will hasten the times of refreshing.
- Repent — a changed judgment of yourself, formed in God's sight. The mind reverses its verdict on your own past.
- Turn — conversion adds the will to the mind: the deliberate turning of the heart to God, which is why Peter says both.
- Blotted out — the pardon rests on the blood of the Messiah they rejected. It reaches a person through self-judgment, never around it.
- Refreshing — repentance does not just precede blessing; it aims at it: "so that," not "when."
- Restoration — Peter put his proposal to the nation. The world's wider blessing still waits on Israel's repentance, and on God sending Jesus back from heaven.
and he may send Jesus Christ, who was foreordained for you,
Peter's second sermon follows the healing of the lame man at the temple gate. It ends with an offer: if the nation turns back, God will send Jesus to them again. Two questions follow. What is this "refreshing"? And was the offer real?
Writers note a shift between Peter's first sermon and this one. In Acts 2 people were called out of a guilty generation one by one; here the nation itself is addressed.
A very remarkable offer was made to Israel that day in Solomon's porch. In Acts 2 Peter appealed to people one by one, and those who responded were at once separated from "this crooked generation." In Acts 3 the same preacher appealed to the nation as a whole. He called on the people to repent and turn to God. He promised them that if they did, their sins would be blotted out, and times of refreshing would come from the presence of the Lord. What is more, God would send Jesus back... Note carefully that the world's blessing waits for Israel's repentance. While that nation stays in unbelief, Jesus remains in the heavens, and the evil rule of the devil goes on.
Older translations read "when the times of refreshing shall come." Commentators press for "so that": repentance brings the refreshing. The ESV agrees.
It is clear that the apostle calls on the Jews to repent and turn to God, so that their sins might be blotted out. And this is so that (not when) the times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Lord, and He might send Jesus Christ... We do not doubt that Peter then saw the repentance of Israel as possible, if not likely. The passage itself shows that, if they repented, Jesus would certainly be sent from heaven without delay.
If the offer was real, why did nothing come of it?
Jesus had returned on high because the Jewish nation rejected Him. Yet if the nation itself would repent and turn to Him, God was ready to send Him back to bring in the times of kingdom refreshing. Of course, this promise was given in perfectly good faith, yet at the same time God knew that the nation as such would not change their mind concerning Christ. However rebellious Israel was, God would give them full opportunity to repent.
Another writer draws the same line between what we owe God and what God has planned.
God knows beforehand how people will receive the testimony, and He acts in that knowledge. Our responsibility is quite another thing. Christ presented Himself as Messiah to the Jews to confirm the promises, and they were bound to receive Him. Yet His rejection became the basis on which God accomplished all His purposes.
The wording marks Jesus out as the One already designated for this people — the very Man they had driven away is the One God holds in reserve for them.
Verses 19, 20 are given accurately: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus."
Some read the refreshing as a fresh outpouring of the Spirit. Commentators answer that the Spirit had already come — it was the Spirit speaking through Peter who pointed forward to something else.
It is impossible to apply this passage to the Holy Spirit. He had already come down at that time, and had said through the apostle, "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoring all things." And in truth, the Holy Spirit has not restored all things.
The timing of Peter's words is itself the argument. Pentecost was the high point of the Spirit's power, and Peter spoke at that very moment.
This was the exact moment the Holy Spirit seized, through the apostle Peter, to declare as strongly as possible that these times are still future. A further mighty change must still take place. It will not come by fresh or repeated missions of the Holy Spirit on Christians or for Christian purposes, but by sending Jesus — that Jesus who has gone away to heaven.
Christ is sent to repair, not to wipe out. Writers also mark the limits of that repair.
Christ will be sent, according to these testimonies, not for the destruction, but for the restoring of all things.
Some have pressed the apostle's words to make them include even the unpardoned dead. The restoration does not go beyond what "God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets." No prophet tells us to look for the restoring to God's favour of men who have died in their sins.
The offer stood open until Stephen. His death was the reply.
Jesus was still "standing" in glory, ready to fulfil what Peter had said in Acts 3:20, if only they had repented. They did not repent, but gave a violent refusal by stoning Stephen and sending him after his Master.
- Offer. Peter addresses the nation as a whole and lays before it a return of the very Messiah it had rejected.
- Condition. The sense is "so that," not "when." Repentance comes first. Then the refreshing, and Jesus sent without delay.
- Person. The refreshing is not a further work of the Spirit, who had already come; it waits on Christ being sent from heaven.
- Scope. He comes to restore, not to destroy. But the restoring reaches only as far as the prophets spoke. It does not reach those who died in their sins.
- Result. Israel refused, and Stephen's death sealed the refusal. The times are put off, not cancelled. They wait for Jesus to be sent.
whom heaven indeed must receive till [the] times of [the] restoring of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since time began.
Peter is speaking in the temple, just after the healing of a lame man. He tells the crowd where Jesus is now, how long heaven will keep Him, and what will end that stay.
Peter's appeal here is not to individuals but to Israel as a nation. The world's future hangs on their answer.
A very remarkable overture was made to Israel that day in Solomon's porch. In Acts 2 Peter's appeal was to individuals. Those who responded were at once detached from "this crooked generation." In Acts 3 the same preacher's appeal was to the nation as such. He called on the people to repent and turn back to God. He promised that if they did, their sins would be blotted out, and that times of refreshing would come from the presence of the Lord. What is more, God would send back Jesus. The heavens had received Him until the times of the restoration of all things. Now it was for Israel to say whether that time of universal blessing should begin at once.
Older translations read "restitution" where the ESV has "restoring." Which period does Peter mean? The test is what all the prophets actually spoke about.
Has God spoken of the final judgment at the end of the world by the mouth of all His holy prophets? No. Certainly all the holy prophets of the old covenant have not spoken of it. What times, then, have they all spoken of? Plainly the millennial times — the times when all the nations of the earth will be brought under the Messiah's rule. The word translated "restitution" means restoring what has fallen into disorder, brokenness, and confusion.
Christ's absence from earth has a cause. Peter traces it to Israel.
Israel's sin had driven Him out of the world, and He was now in heaven. Earth can know no millennium of blessing while He stays away. His continuance in heaven, as Peter showed, depends on Israel's attitude toward Him. God chose that nation to be the centre of light and blessing for the earth. While it stays stubborn and unbelieving, Christ cannot return, and universal blessing cannot begin.
Some read the verse as if Christ waits in heaven while the world slowly improves. On this reading He arrives only at the end. The Greek will not allow it.
Heaven must receive Him till the times for restoring all things according to prophecy. That is, Jesus will be sent to bring in these blessed times when all things will be reconstituted — not destroyed — as the prophets of old testified. Christ will come from heaven to earth to establish millennial blessing. You would have to change the Greek completely to get the meaning "till all be accomplished." Christ is on high till the times of restoring all things come, not till all has been restored.
The phrase has been stretched to teach that everyone will finally be saved. Peter's own clause rules that out.
People have misused the term "restitution of all things" to back the idea that God will save and restore everybody in the end — even the devil himself. But the passage reads, "the restitution of all things, which God has spoken…" It is things, not persons — things He had spoken of by His prophets from the very start.
The same clause sets a second limit. It concerns people who die in their sins.
The restoration does not go beyond what "God has spoken by the mouth of His holy prophets," and certainly no prophet tells us to look for the restoration to divine favour of men who have died in their sins. The prophets' standpoint was the earth. In stirring language they describe how God's power removes every scar that sin has caused. He does it so that He may once more have pleasure in the works of His hands, and that men may enjoy His mercy. The healing of the lame man was an example, strikingly illustrating Isaiah 35:5-6.
Every trust God placed in human hands has failed. The coming age answers the whole list.
Throughout the ages God has brought out before men many things that are His purpose for this world. He created Adam as head, and he sinned. He established government in Noah, and it was corrupted. He gave His law through Moses, and it was broken. He set up priesthood in Aaron, and it was perverted. He established kingly authority in David, and it collapsed. These things, and every other good thing in His purpose, will be restored in the coming age. And not only restored, but established in far greater fullness and in absolute perfection, because all will then be centred in Christ.
- Withheld — heaven keeps Christ while Israel stays unbelieving, and the earth waits with Him.
- Until — He stays above till those times begin, not till they are finished. His return opens the age; it does not close it.
- Things — God restores things, not persons. The verse gives no ground for saying every person will be saved in the end.
- Spoken — the prophets' words set the limit. The restoration reaches as far as they reach, and no further.
- Restored — headship, government, law, priesthood and kingship all broke in human hands. Christ recovers them all and perfects them.