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Scripture Reading: Acts 3:1-26
In 3:1-26 we have Peter’s second message to the Jews. Verses 1 through 10 describe the healing of a lame man, and verses 11 through 26 record the actual message given by Peter.
Acts 3:1 says, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.” We have pointed out that in the initiation of God’s New Testament economy, the early believers and even the first group of apostles were not clear that God had forsaken Judaism with its practices and facilities, including the temple. For this reason, according to their tradition and habit, they still went to the temple.
The early believers were not clear concerning God’s New Testament economy with respect to the Judaic temple. Not even the early apostles had a clear vision concerning God’s abandonment of the Judaic things. Hence, even after God’s pouring out the Spirit upon them on the day of Pentecost to initiate a new dispensation, they still did not separate themselves from the Judaic temple. At the initial stage God tolerated their ignorance in this matter. But this led to a mixture of the church with Judaism, a mixture that was not condemned by the early church in Jerusalem (see Acts 21:20-26). Eventually the temple was destroyed by Titus with his Roman army in A.D. 70, as prophesied by the Lord in Matt. 23:38 and Matt. 24:2. That destruction cleared up the religious mixture.
When Peter and John, who were about to go into the temple, saw a certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb, they gazed at him and said, “Look at us!” (3:2-4). The man “paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, Silver and gold I do not possess, but what I have, this I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene — walk! And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and his feet and ankles were instantly made strong” (vv. 5-7). Peter did not possess silver and gold, but St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome was constructed with a superabundance of gold. He did not have silver and gold, but he had the name, the Person, of Jesus Christ. He was poor in silver and gold, but he was rich in Christ. The Roman Church is filled with gold, but not with the Person of Christ. She is rich in gold but poor in Christ.
In speaking to the lame man, Peter told him to walk in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene. “Nazarene” indicates the One despised by the Jewish leaders (John 1:45-46; Acts 22:8; 24:5).
Peter and John did a miracle, and the people paid their attention to it. But in his speaking Peter turned the attention of the people from the miracle to a Person, to the Lord Jesus. Although Peter and John had performed a miracle, Peter did not talk about the miracle. Instead, he used the miracle as a basis to turn his audience to Christ. He turned the people’s attention from the healing to the Healer.
Peter’s message was based on the miracle of the healing of the lame man. However, it was not Peter’s burden to talk about divine healing. Rather, his burden was to propagate Christ. He was burdened to speak forth Christ, to speak out Christ.
Peter’s burden was to speak Christ directly into others so they may become Christ’s propagation to be His living members in order that Christ may have a Body on earth. Pentecost is for the propagation of Christ, not for miracles, wonders, signs, and divine healing. All those things are minor. Even though a lame man was healed through Peter and John, Peter’s emphasis was not on healing but on the name of the Lord Jesus. First, Peter said to the lame man, “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene — walk!” Then in his message he went on to say, “By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you behold and know” (v. 16). Therefore, Peter did not preach divine healing or miracles; he preached the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Although Peter turned the attention of the people from the healing to the Healer, today Christians who emphasize healing often direct people’s attention from the Healer to healing, even a false healing. Many of the so-called healings in Pentecostal meetings are not genuine. After the lame man was healed, “he stood and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God” (v. 8). This was a genuine healing. Nevertheless, Peter directed the people to the Healer, to the Lord Jesus. We also should turn our attention away from healing to the Healer.
When all the people, greatly amazed, ran to Peter, John, and the lame man, Peter said to them, “Men, Israelites, why are you marveling at this man? Or why are you gazing at us, as though by our own power or godliness we have made him to walk? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him” (vv. 12-13). Some manuscripts add “the God of” before Isaac and Jacob. Why in verse 13 did Peter speak of God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Why did he not speak simply of God? This title refers to the Triune God, Jehovah, the great I AM (Exo. 3:14-15). According to the Lord’s word in Matthew 22, this divine title implies resurrection: “Concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (vv. 31-32). Peter referred to God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because this indicates that He is the God of resurrection.
Peter told the people that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob “glorified His Servant Jesus.” God glorified the Lord Jesus through His resurrection and in His ascension (Luke 24:26; Heb. 2:9; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11).
In 3:14 Peter said to the people, “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a man who was a murderer to be granted to you.” What does it mean to say that the Lord is the Holy One? In this verse “Holy” indicates that Jesus, the Nazarene, the One despised by the Jewish leaders, was absolutely for God and separated unto Him. Furthermore, He was absolutely one with God. According to the denotation of the word “holy” in the Bible, it signifies one who is absolutely unto God, who is absolutely for God, and who is absolutely one with God. In all of human history only the Lord Jesus is such a One. David was good, but at least in one instance he was for himself and not for God. However, throughout His entire life the Lord Jesus was absolutely separated unto God, for God, and one with God. There was never an instant when He was not absolutely for God and one with Him. Therefore, He is called the Holy One. He alone deserves the title “the Holy One.”
According to 3:14, Peter called the Lord Jesus not only the Holy One but also the Righteous One. To be righteous is to be right with God and also with every one and with every thing. Only the Lord Jesus can be called the Righteous One, because only He is right with God and with everyone and with everything. In ourselves we are not right with God, with others, or even with things. For example, in anger we may kick a door or knock over a chair. This is to be wrong with the door or the chair. We, therefore, cannot be the Righteous One.
As the Righteous One, the Lord Jesus is the Right One. He was never wrong with God or with any one or with any thing. Consider the time He cleansed the temple: “He found in the temple those selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money-changers sitting there. And having made a whip of cords, He drove them all, both the sheep and the oxen, out of the temple, and He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned the tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise” (John 2:14-16). The Lord Jesus certainly was right in doing this. If He had not done it, He would have behaved like a politician. The Lord saw the sinful situation, and He was indignant. However, suppose He had said to Himself, “I should not do anything out of anger. If I do, there will be a record that I once did something when I was angry. I need to consider Myself and behave carefully.” However, as the Righteous One, the Lord cleansed the temple in a righteous way. He was never wrong, for He was always the Righteous One.
In his second message to the Jews, Peter called the Healer the Servant, the Holy One, and the Righteous One. How was Peter, who was unlearned, able to give such a word? As we shall see, when those in the Sanhedrin perceived that Peter and John “were uneducated and unlearned men, they marveled, and they recognized them, that they had been together with Jesus” (4:13). Although Peter was uneducated and unlearned, he could give the message recorded in Acts 3 by the life-giving Spirit who was within him. Here the Spirit did not speak directly by Himself. Rather, according to the principle of incarnation, the Spirit spoke through Peter, an uneducated person. Therefore, the points concerning the Lord Jesus are divine, but the speaking is still that of an uneducated fisherman. In Acts 3 the Spirit spoke through a fisherman. In his speaking Peter could declare that the Lord Jesus is the Holy One, the One absolutely separated unto God, for God, and one with God, and also the Righteous One, the One who is right with God, with everyone, and with everything.
In 3:15 Peter went on to say, “And the Author of life you killed, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.” Here the Greek word rendered “Author” is archegos,meaning author, origin, originator, chief leader, captain. It denotes Christ as the origin or Originator of life, hence, the Author of life, in contrast to the murderer in the previous verse.
In this verse the King James Version has “the Prince of life.” This is a poor rendering. In 3:15 archegos does not denote a prince; it denotes the very source, origin, even originator, of life, the Author of life. Here Peter is saying that the Healer is the source of life, the Originator of life; He is the Author, the Chief Leader, in life. Peter was indicating that the Healer is not merely a Healer — He is the source, origin, and Initiator of life.
What we have in chapter three of Acts is not merely a matter of healing. Here we see the imparting of life into others. This is to propagate Christ. For such a propagation, we need the Lord as the Author of life, as the source of life.
Many Christians, following traditional theology, read the Bible in a shallow way. This is the reason I encourage the saints to drop traditional theology and come back to the Bible. In the Bible there are many deep “mines” in which we need to dig. One of these deep mines is the Greek word archegos in 3:15.
We need to see where life is, where life comes from. The word “Author” in verse 15 indicates that life comes from this Healer, who is the Holy One and the Righteous One. This Healer has not only the power to heal; He Himself is the source, the origin of life, for He is the Author, the Originator of life. When we have life, we also have healing. The reason people become sick is that they are weak in life. Medical doctors know that when we are weak in life, we may become ill. But if we are strong in life, the life will swallow up death.
Peter wanted the people to realize that the One they killed is the Author of life. He is not only the Healer — He is the Author of life. But although He was killed, God raised Him from the dead. As we have pointed out, regarding the Lord as a man, the New Testament says that God raised Him from the dead. But considering Him as God, it tells us that He Himself rose from the dead (Rom. 14:9). Furthermore, the apostles were witnesses of the resurrected Christ, bearing witness of His resurrection, which is the crucial focus in the carrying out of God’s New Testament economy.
In 3:16 Peter said, “And by faith in His name, His name has made this man strong, whom you behold and know; and the faith which is through Him has given him this perfect soundness before you all.” The Greek words rendered “by faith in His name” literally mean “on the faith of His name,” that is, on the ground of faith in His name. The name denotes the person. The person backs the name; hence, the name is powerful.
In verses 17 and 18 Peter goes on to say, “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as also your rulers did; but the things which God announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.” The redeeming death of Christ was first determined by God in eternity (2:23) and announced beforehand through the prophets in the Old Testament time. This proves again that Christ’s death was not an historical accident, but an act planned by God according to the purpose of His good pleasure and announced beforehand through the prophets.
In 3:22 and 23 Peter indicates that the Lord Jesus is the Prophet: “Moses indeed said, A Prophet will the Lord your God raise up for you, from your brothers, like me; Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He may speak to you. And it shall be that every soul, whoever does not hear that Prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” Therefore, in this chapter we see that the Lord Jesus is the Servant, the Holy One, the Righteous One, the Author of life, and the Prophet.
In 3:19-26 Peter exhorts the Jews to repent and turn so that they may partake of and enjoy the ascended and coming Christ. Here Peter seems to be saying, “You did something very foolish, but now you need to repent and turn so that you may partake of the ascended and coming Christ and enjoy Him. Christ is the Servant of God, the Holy One, the Righteous One, and the Author of life. He has accomplished everything, and He has attained and obtained all things. He is now in the heavens, but He will come back. This Christ is your portion. Repent, turn, and come to participate in Him and enjoy Him. If you come to Him you will enjoy Him.” This was the emphasis of Peter’s second speaking to the Jews.
In 3:19 Peter said to the Jews, “Repent therefore and turn, that your sins may be wiped away, so that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Literally the Greek word for “refreshing” means cooling, reviving; hence, relieving, refreshing. The seasons of refreshing denote a time of revival of all things with joy and rest. These seasons of refreshing refer to the times of the restoration of all things mentioned in 3:21. The times of restoration will be brought in by the coming of the Messiah in His glory, as taught and prophesied by the Savior in Matthew 19:28.
It seems that Peter’s word in 3:19 skips over the church age and goes directly from the time of Pentecost to the millennium. This may indicate that Peter did not have a clear vision concerning the church age in God’s New Testament economy, as the entire New Testament reveals, that is, that before the seasons of refreshing, the church occupies a considerable period of time in God’s dispensation.
We have pointed out that the seasons of refreshing are times of cooling, reviving, relieving. Have you ever entered into such a season of refreshing? Have you experienced such a time of joy and rest? Actually, every proper conversion is a season of refreshing. Every genuine regeneration is a time of enjoyment. When we were saved, we had a time of enjoyment. During that time we had joy and peace. We enjoyed Christ Himself as our joy and peace. To some extent, we all have experienced this.
Actually, the season of refreshing is Christ Himself. When we have Him, we have Him as our refreshing. He is our enjoyment and peace.
In 3:20 and 21 Peter says, “And He may send Him who has been appointed for you, Christ Jesus, whom heaven must indeed receive until the times of restoration of all things, of which God spoke through the mouth of His holy prophets from of old.” The times of restoration of all things are the times of restoration in the millennium, as prophesied in Isaiah 11:1-10 and 65:18-25, and referred to by Christ in Matthew 17:11 and 19:28. The times of restoration of all things will be brought in by His coming back.
