What can we learn from the man who was walking and leaping and praising God (Acts 3:8)?

The lame man, forty years old, at the gate called Beautiful is the type of the moral condition of the nation, like the impotent man whom the Lord healed (John 5). Israel with all its beautiful religious ceremonies was helpless, laying outside with no strength to enter in. Peter commands the lame man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to rise up and to walk. He is instantly healed. He then walked and leaped and entered through the gate as a worshipper into the temple, praising God. This great miracle was wrought as another evidence to the unbelieving nation that Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had rejected and crucified, is their Messiah and King. It was a proof that the rejected One, who had died on a cross and had been buried, is living in Glory, and that God's omnipotent power had been revealed in answer to that name. The miracle also denoted that the promised kingdom was once more offered to the nation. Concerning that kingdom, when it comes, it is written that "the lame man shall leap as an hart." (Isaiah 35:6.) But the lame man, so wonderfully healed, leaping and praising God, is likewise a picture of what the nation will be in a future day, when they will look upon Him whom they have pierced (See Zechariah 12:10; Ezekiel 36:27; Isaiah 12:1-6; 35:10). Peter delivers his second address. Interesting and of much importance are verses 19-21. They can only be understood in the right way if we do not lose sight of the fact to whom they were addressed, that is to Jews, and not to Gentiles. They are the heart of this discourse, and as such a God-given appeal and promise to the nation. If this is lost sight of, the words must lose their right meaning. The repentance which is demanded of them is an acknowledgment of the wrong they had done in denying the Holy and righteous One, a confession of their blood-guiltiness in having slain the author of life. This, of course, would result in their conversion and the blotting out of their sins as a nation. This God had promised before to the nation (Isaiah 44:22-23).

A man, lame from his birth, was accustomed to be carried and laid down at the temple gate which was called Beautiful, to solicit alms from those who went into the temple. He cannot but remind us of the similarly impotent man at the pool of Bethesda upon whom the Lord Himself works a like miracle of healing; and as in that case, we cannot but see here the condition of the nation, impotent at a door which impotence could not enter. The dwelling place of God, however nigh, and however beautiful the approach to it might be, was powerless for blessing, and indeed now vacant, — a seemly formalism only. They praised the gate indeed by which none really entered, great as might be the throng of worshipers, into the presence of God. The beggarly, maimed condition, for those who had eyes to see, characterized all who sought that way of approach.

It is in the consciousness of such a state that the power of the Name of Jesus makes itself known. At the ninth hour, being the third hour of prayer, the hour of the evening sacrifice, — the time when the answer to Daniel was vouchsafed, God manifests Himself in answer to that Name by Peter, who with John is going up still among those of whom they are not. Poor in that world in which his Lord had become poor, he has in the One despised by Israel as the Nazarene the secret of a power still available to them, if like the beggar they will but ask an alms. First lifted, he then leaps up and stands, and now enters into the temple a true worshiper. How simple and natural a picture of such an one, to whom, released from his life-bondage, every movement is a new joy, a, leap of the heart to God. The people recognize with amazement this transformation from impotence to exuberant life, and seeing the man holding Peter and John, run to them in the porch called Solomon's, greatly wondering. Sad reminder of that ruin, from which they would fain believe they have emerged! well will it be if they let this preach to them their need of a Saviour, while they listen to the assurance that He indeed is come.

But, observe, that ere he has time to be thoroughly depressed, Peter goes on to bid him to "rise up and walk." And then we read that Peter "took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength." The power of the Name of Jesus is manifested in the healing of the physical disability. The power of that Name thrills through him, "and he, leaping up, stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God." I understand his radiant joy, and I can understand too the immense joy that a sinner feels, when the Gospel meets him, and he finds his sins forgiven — washed away through his Saviour's blood. It is beautiful to see it in each respective case, and this man goes into the temple "walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God: 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 to him." And if you were to become converted, my friend, all your friends would be amazed. If you appear as a totally new man, would they not be thoroughly surprised? and what a testimony would it be to the power of Christ! I do not know anything more powerful, as a testimony to the grace of God, than the fervent joyous life of a devoted Christian.

Lame from his mother's womb, he had never walked. His feet and ankle bones had never borne the weight of his body. Walk! How could he? Peter showed him that his words were no vain words. For he took him by the right hand, and raised him up, and strength, such as he had never known, he received at once. With the agility of one who had always had the use of his limbs, he leaped up. The weight of his body these limbs, so powerless for forty years, now perfectly sustained. He stood. And the activity proper to man was his in common with others around. He began to walk, as we should translate. No arm even to lean on did he need. No crutch to support him was in requisition. With no tottering gait did he move. Carried as he had been to the precincts of the Temple, he entered the Beautiful gate of it a sound man, walking and leaping and praising God. In open day this occurred. In the most public place in the city, in the presence of a multitude about probably to pass through that Beautiful gate to engage in prayer, the man formerly lame, and well known to be such, passed in with the crowd, demonstrating to all beholders his new powers, for he walked, and manifesting his joy, for he was praising God. He held Peter and John, it is true, but not to support himself. His benefactors he deemed them, and so naturally clung to them.

As they were going up a lame man was being carried, to be laid at the gate of the Temple called Beautiful, [12] to solicit alms. He lived, it would seem, on the charity of the public, extended to him as they entered the sacred precincts. Forty years old was he now, and daily was he carried and laid down at that gate. Had he ever seen the Lord passing in or out? Certainly, if he had, healing power had not been exercised on his behalf. Every cripple, every sick one, did not receive benefit from Him. Witness the great multitude of sick folk at the Pool of Bethesda, waiting there on the day that the impotent man was cured. Now, however, the hour in the counsels of God had arrived for this one to be made whole. Seeing Peter and John, he asked an alms. It was his wonted request. It was all he asked, and evidently all he expected (Acts 3:5). A little temporal relief he craved. He was, however, to get healing . He had been indebted to the kindness and support of others to get there, and was actually at the moment being carried, an evidence of his helplessness, when, in answer to his petition for an alms, Peter said, "Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazaræan walk" (3:6). We should here omit "rise up." The omission makes it more graphic. He was to walk.

Lame from his mother's womb, he had never walked. His feet and ankle bones had never borne the weight of his body. Walk! How could he? Peter showed him that his words were no vain words. For he took him by the right hand, and raised him up, and strength, such as he had never known, he received at once. With the agility of one who had always had the use of his limbs, he leaped up. The weight of his body these limbs, so powerless for forty years, now perfectly sustained. He stood. And the activity proper to man was his in common with others around. He began to walk, as we should translate. No arm even to lean on did he need. No crutch to support him was in requisition. With no tottering gait did he move. Carried as he had been to the precincts of the Temple , he entered the Beautiful gate of it a sound man, walking and leaping and praising God. In open day this occurred. In the most public place in the city, in the presence of a multitude about probably to pass through that Beautiful gate to engage in prayer, the man formerly lame, and well known to be such, passed in with the crowd, demonstrating to all beholders his new powers, for he walked, and manifesting his joy, for he was praising God. He held Peter and John, it is true, but not to support himself. His benefactors he deemed them, and so naturally clung to them.

And 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. The possession of the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth here upon earth produces glory to God, and sets the world in a flame against the poor vessel, the honoured vessel. There was no poverty there. There is poverty in the silver and the gold; but there is no poverty in the name of Jesus. There is rejoicing, blessing, light, in the possession of that name. "Such as I possess give I thee." And so we find the whole world is against Peter and what he had done. He had brought blessing to a poor lame man, but on a new ground altogether. Not the effort of man, nor anything of man, but the power and healing that comes from One who was entirely outside this world; a humility and a power the world could not gainsay or deny, but which it yet was resisting; a power that found all the world against it, and against the one that possessed it. Do you think it is a wonderful thing that, with this power, the world is against you? If you have not this power of the name of Jesus you will not find the world against you - either in animosity, or in wiles.

But to return to our main theme. The power was promised by our Lord, and they were to wait for it. I quote a few scriptures to show how fully He fulfilled His promise — merely indicating the presence of the power. "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?" (Acts 3:12). "And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?" (Acts 4:7). Peter and John had found a poor crippled beggar — lame from birth — laid at the beautiful gate of the temple. What a striking picture of the helplessness of the law to deliver man. Here under the very shadow of the temple, with all its gorgeous adornment and splendid ritual, lay a man helpless from birth. He begs; how can he give that which the law demands?

But power comes to him through these two men. He is delivered from his helplessness, and walking, leaping, and praising God, in the ecstasy of a newly found blessing, he enters into the place of worship. Surely a power had been put forth, and all the people had to acknowledge it. Even the priests were compelled to recognize the fact, and ask “by what power," and, as though fearing to speak the Name — "by what name have ye done this?" Here, then, is the promised power shown in the miracle, but that was only a type of delivering power from sin and all else. Nor was this confined to a few. All might not work miracles, but all had divine power for the work for which they were used.

Here is the temple which had been built by Solomon according to God's glory, and renewed, just for a moment, that Jesus might be there. And Jesus having died upon the cross, and being risen from the dead, and now at God's right hand exalted, we find these two men going up to the temple to pray. And there is another who is brought there - a lame, helpless creature. He never had walked. He is laid there, in his helplessness, in the place of blessing, but it was powerless to help him. No blessing comes from that place. No blessing comes to the powerless man laid there, except in another way. The place is desert, though it be the beautiful temple that Solomon had built, though it be the beautiful gate of that temple, and though it be Solomon's porch where the lame man is laid, it is but a desert place now. The blessing to him must come from elsewhere. And these two men, these two vessels of power and grace, these two temples of the Holy Ghost (one likes to look at it in that way, not two unknown and ignorant men) - these two temples of the Holy Ghost, these vessels of grace, full of blessing from God Himself, come up to the temple to express dependence upon God; and the poor helpless one looks at them, hoping to receive something of them. Then Peter looks upon him, and says, I have no silver, and I have no gold; but such as I have give I thee. He does not say at first what that is, but he is in the conscious possession of it. It is possible for us also to have it. It is not merely the case of an inspired apostle, but it is the Christian's possession, the possession of a power that is outside this world - the power of the name of Jesus. It was not merely that Jesus had been here, was crucified, and now risen, but Peter had in himself the power of that name - he had possession of it; and he says, I have not silver, and I have not gold; but such as I have give I thee. He was the poorest man in the world in one way, he was the richest man in another - he had possession of the power of the name of Jesus. Have you and I that power? We are - not inspired apostles - no one ever thought we were; but have we the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth? Have we really now the power of that name? Do we know what it is, by the grace of God, to have touched that blessed One, to be linked up with that power? Now Peter says, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." It is wonderful the way the Spirit of God puts these names together. Peter does not say the glorified Christ, and he does not say the crucified Christ, but he says, "Jesus Christ of Nazareth," the despised One here, the humiliated One, the despised Man here upon the earth. Well Peter knew Him in the glory, but when he comes to meet this man in his need, where he was, he says, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" - the despised man - "rise up and walk."

There is the power of the name. You and I may sit and sing about Christ glorified, and gazing on Him, and it is a blessed reality; but the reality of gazing on Him is also the finding, here in this world, that it is Jesus Christ the despised One. We gaze upon Him there, and we sing of Him there; and what answers to that glory is the humiliation here in this world. And so Peter speaks to the lame man "in the name of Jesus Christ," not the glorified One, but "of Nazareth;" and he says, "Rise up and walk;" and the man rises up, and walks. And now look at the effect of that directly. Everyone is against him, and the whole world is roused. All the religious authorities and the powers of the world are set against this man - a poor man. What has he done? He has healed a man that never had walked in his life. He had brought into the midst of sorrow and weakness and pride, and hatred of God, the life-giving power of "the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth."

The book of Acts furnishes, too, we cannot doubt, many types and illustrations of grace. We mention but the healing of the impotent man at the Beautiful Gate, so near to all the grandeur of the legal ritual which yet had never given him power to do aught but beg. Set free by grace, he enters into those splendors and exults in his new-found liberty which doubtless gives a new light to all the splendors of the temple.

In the third chapter, Peter and John go into the temple, and there is a lame man there, just like poor, lame Israel, sitting and begging by the beautiful gate of the temple. A picture of what Judaism was with its beautiful temple: but a poor, lame beggar. The name of Jesus sets him free; he leaps, he walks, he praises God.