Acts 3: In the Name of Jesus, GET UP AND WALK!

Journey through the New TestamentBook of Acts with me.  The plan is simple. Read ONE chapter a day. Blog or journal 5* things you learned that you previously didn't know and ask 5* questions about the chapter that you'll ponder all week. Let's go!

** You'll probably learn way more than 5 things and have more than 5 questions about each chapter. That's totally fine. The more the merrier! 

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ACTS 3:1-23

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1: How did this healing of the lame man work? Did Peter trust that the Holy Spirit would empower the process if he simply spoke by faith or did the Holy Spirit “impress” upon Peter in that moment that the power for healing was “available”?

QUESTION 2: What does “times of refreshing” look like today in the life of a new follower of Jesus Christ?

QUESTION 3: How is Peter suddenly so bold and articulate considering that at the end of the Gospels, he was in hiding with the disciples and could barely get his story straight during Jesus’ trial when he was confronted by a teenage girl about his association with Jesus?

QUESTION 4: What became of the man with a new set of legs? How did he transition from living off alms to suddenly being healthy and able to move about?

QUESTION 5: Peter’s sermon is still geared toward a Jewish crowd, hence the references to Abraham and Moses. Did he yet understand how God would break down ethnic barriers by offering this same Gospel to those “not of Abraham”?

WHAT I LEARNED

INSIGHT 1: The apostles continued the habit of regular prayer – “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.” (v.1)

INSIGHT 2: Peter commands the man to “rise up and walk” in the name of Jesus Christ, yet, he had to physically pick him (“…took him by the right hand and raised him up” – v.7) before the man actually experiences the miracle of “his feet and ankles [being] made strong.”

INSIGHT 3: This man received a greater treasure than gold and silver. He received a brand new set of legs, something he hadn’t had and had never known since birth (v.2).

INSIGHT 4: Biblical signs and wonders are designed to awe and amaze people to the point of openness to the Gospel.  Peter’s healing of the lame man led to a gathered crowd who were “open” to hearing Peter’s witness. “…all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's.And when Peter saw it he addressed the people” (v.11-12)

INSIGHT 5: Peter doesn’t for a moment take any praise for the miracle, but goes out of His way to point out that it was by the resurrected Christ’ power that the man was now healed. Every display of signs and wonders from heaven should be immediately and instantly credited to the divine resurrection power of Jesus Christ. ““Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? ” (v.12)

INSIGHT 6: Physical healing was this lame man’s more immediate need. His greater need was for eternal life, and that is the message Peter shares with the crowd in verse 16, “And his name [Jesus]—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus[c] has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” 

INSIGHT 7: Peter 12-Point sermon:

1. We (he and John) have no supernatural abilities to heal. (v.12) 

2. The God you (the Jews) worship is the same Jesus you all betrayed. (v.13)

3. You (the Jews) traded him for a murderer. (v.14)

4. You (the Jews) killed the One who created you. (v.15a)

5. Surprise! He’s alive and we’ve seen Him. (v.15b)

6. It’s in His name and by His power that this lame man can now walk. (v.16)

7. You all acted in ignorance, though the prophets told you it would happen. (v.17-18)

8. Repent NOW and experience life change today.  (v.19-20)

9. Jesus will return in the future and restore ALL things and call to account ALL peoples. (v.21)

10. If you don’t listen to what your prophets (Moses) said, you will end up in hell. (v.22-23)

11. This Jesus is what you have all been waiting for! (v.24)

12. You all have first dibs on Him. Change, NOW! (v.25-26)

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