THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
The Healing of the Lame Man
(Acts 3:1-26)
So much of understanding Acts depends upon understanding what Luke and the rest of the NT writers meant by the concept of the Kingdom of God. First, whatever else is true about the kingdom of God, it is first and foremost God's kingdom. It is important not to lose sight of this because during the next several paragraphs we are going to be focusing primarily upon Jesus the Messiah in the kingdom of God. It's just that right now God has determined that the focus should be on His Son Jesus; however, a day is coming in which the focus will turn to the Father. Paul informs us that after all creation has been subjected beneath the lordship of Jesus, Jesus will then turn and deliver the kingdom to His Father (1 Cor. 15:28). John claims the same thing to be true when he says that after Jesus has finished reigning for 1000 years, the Father then will descend with the New Jerusalem. On that day but not before, on that day we will then see the Father face to face (Rev. 22:4). Until that day the focus will be on Jesus.
As we saw in chapter 2, the kingdom of God just does not suddenly appear. Instead a person anointed with God's Spirit (called "the Messiah," that is, "the Anointed One") will bring in the kingdom of God by overcoming the enemies of that kingdom. After He has achieved a tremendous victory over the enemies of God, the Father will then exalt Him to His right hand. After He has been lifted up to the right hand of the Father, this Messiah who is filled to the fullest with the Holy Spirit will then pour out His Spirit upon His people.
This Messiah pouring out His Spirit upon His followers will have numerous results. First, the Spirit will free them from sin. He will come to live in them and give them a new, spiritual, divine nature just like Jesus'. Second, He will raise them from the dead and heal their bodies permanently. Third, He will overcome finally the enemies of God led by Satan and his hosts. Fourth, He will radically transform the universe so that it will not only be a suitable dwelling place for the children of God but also for God Himself.
From last week's lesson we saw that in this kingdom, God has anointed Jesus to be His Messiah. After Jesus achieved a tremendous victory over Satan on the cross (Colossians 2:15), God then exalted Him to His right hand (Eph. 4:8-10; Phil. 2:8-11). The miracles being performed at His death and on the day of Pentecost by His followers proved that the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon Jesus' followers. Why? Because He was the Messiah God had exalted to His right hand.
We need to remember though that the work which Jesus performed is not yet complete. Right now we are experiencing freedom from sin, just not to the extent we will experience this freedom when Christ returns. Jesus has achieved a tremendous victory over Satan on the cross; it's just that one final victory remains to be won. It's as good as done; it just hasn't been won yet. The universe has yet to be transformed; our bodies have yet to be transformed. We've experienced the work of Jesus the Messiah only partially; however, this partial experience previews and guarantees a complete experience of Jesus' work. God always finishes what He starts. The following story needs to be understood in light of what has just been said.
THE HEALING (3:1-12)
Just a short time after Pentecost Peter and John ascend the Temple mound to pray during the ninth hour (3:00 p.m.). (Sacrifices were offered twice daily during which prayers were being made, in the morning around 9:00 and in the late afternoon around 3:00.) While Peter and John are headed for either the court of the women or the court of the men, a man who has been lame from birth is being carried to his regular resting place at the gate of the temple called "Beautiful" in order to beg alms of the crowd who had assembled at the temple to pray.
When you read different commentators, you will discover that they locate the Beautiful Gate at one of two places: either at the entrance to the court of the women or at the entrance to the court of the men. Based upon the writings of Josephus who actually saw the temple and therefore wrote from memory, it is most likely that the door to the entrance of the court of the women was the Beautiful Gate. According to Josephus this door was made of Corinthian bronze while the other gates were made of silver and gold. Even though it was not as expensive as gold or silver, this Corinthian bronze most likely shone like polished brass, thereby enhancing its beauty.
As the 2 apostles ascend into the Temple compound, the man asks them for alms. Whereas most people would just flip a coin into the purse he had prepared for alms, Peter along with John stopped and fixed his gaze upon the man, commanding him to look at them. The man immediately stopped and fixed his gaze upon them, thinking that his ship has finally come in. Peter right off the bat though tells him: "Silver and gold I do not possess." (B.F.'s description of the man's probable reaction is funny; he said the man probably thought: "Oh great!"). Peter goes on: "But what I do have, I give to you. In the name of Jesus the Nazarene, walk!" At this point the man leaps up and begins to walk with Peter and John. In fact he is actually leaping and praising God. The temple compound is stirred by the praises of this man.
The commotion is most likely causing an uproar in the court of the women, near the place where the sacrifices occurred. Peter and John, accompanied by the man who had been healed, head for Solomon's portico, the colonnade which ran along the eastern outer wall of the Temple compound. When Peter sees all the people running together towards him, John, and the man who had been healed, Peter replies: "Why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power and piety we had made this man walk?" In other words Peter was rebuking them because the people were acting as if Peter were ultimately responsible for this man's healing. Someone is responsible for the healing. That person though is not Peter; it is the exalted Jesus.
PETER'S EXPLANATION OF THE HEALING (3:13-26)
Peter begins his sermon by giving the ultimate reason why this man was healed: "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus" (3:13). In other words, the exaltation of Jesus to the right hand of the Father is what resulted in this man being healed. In order for Jesus who is anointed with God's Spirit to pour out His Spirit upon people, He first had to be exalted to the righthand of the Father. One of the things the Spirit did was to heal people. This man could have only been healed if the Holy Spirit had been poured out. The fact that he has been healed proves the Holy Spirit has been poured out; the fact that the Holy Spirit has been poured out proves that Jesus the Anointed One has been exalted to the right hand of the Father. Someone has to have been exalted for this miracle to occur. If it was not Jesus, then who was it?
Several different threads are running throughout this sermon. First, the names Peter applies to Jesus through this passage are important for understanding what the early church taught about Jesus and how it interpreted the OT. In these verses Jesus is called "the Servant," "the Holy One," "the Righteous One," "the Prophet," and "the Prince of Life." He concludes his sermon by calling Jesus once more "the Servant." By repeating this title "the Servant" at the end of his sermon, Peter most likely is implying that everything within this sermon about Jesus needs to be understand in light of this term.
Most of these terms, especially "the Servant," draw us to Isaiah, especially to Isaiah chapters 40-66 which speak about "the Servant" or "the Servant of the Lord." In chapters 1-39 Isaiah paints a rather gloomy picture of the situation in the Judah of his time. In chapter 40 a new tone is set. The prophet cries out: "Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people!" God is crying out that the days of distress are over, that a new day has emerged. The primary characteristic of this new day is that God Himself is coming to His people; therefore, build a super highway in your lands, but especially in your hearts so that He may come to you and me. What follows then in these chapters is a beautiful description of life in this new age, in this kingdom of God: Jerusalem will be glorious; God will pour out His Spirit; God is making all things new.
Running alongside this glorious description of this new age is the theme of the Servant God is going to send to His people. This theme is like a discordant note interrupting all the positive features of this new age. This Servant will be despised and rejected of men. No one will believe his message. In fact even though we like sheep have gone astray, he is going to pay for our sins. He is bruised and led away to slaughter; yet like a sheep he does not open his mouth in protest.
By having these 2 themes run side by side (the glorious new age and the suffering Servant of the Lord), Isaiah is saying that the sufferings of the Servant are what bring about the new age. This Servant, this Messiah who has been anointed by the Lord (Isaiah 61:1), will bring in this new age by suffering for His people. The Jews did not get this interpretation from Isaiah. They simply did not understand the significance of the passages about the Servant. Instead they viewed the Messiah as only a conquering hero like David their most glorious king. For this reason Peter almost gives the Jews a pass, saying that their treatment of Jesus was based to a large degree on ignorance (3:17). To be sure Jesus has been glorified, that is, exalted as the Messiah to the right hand of the Father so that now He distributes the Spirit who heals. That is the reason the man has been healed. This exaltation though came at the cost of great humiliation on the part of Jesus.
Other themes running in this sermon include (1) the need for faith on the part of the one being healed, (2) the ignorance of the Jews in their treatment of Jesus, (3) the need for repentance in their attitude towards Jesus; and (4) the claim that the OT continuously prophesied the coming of Christ.
ACTS HISTORICAL OR NORMATIVE?
One of the major questions confronting any Christian is whether the events in Acts are historical or normative. By that I mean are the kinds of events in Acts (miracles, spiritual gifts) restricted to the time of the apostles, or are they supposed to be a normal part of the everyday lives of Christians? The primary focus is on whether or not the gifts of healing and tongues are still operating today, and if so, are there such things as Christian healers? Although I may be stepping into quicksand here, I believe that a reasoned approach to this question will yield valuable results.
Christians who claim that these events and gifts are strictly historical (confined to the time of the apostles) base their claim on 1 Cor. 13:8-10. According to Paul when the perfect comes, prophecy will be done away, tongues will cease, and knowledge will be done away. "For we knwo in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away" (1 Cor. 13:8-10). These well-meaning Christians claim the when the Bible was completed, the perfect had come. As a result, the gifts of healing and tongues cease to function.
In response to this, we notice that they do not say that prophesy or knowledge has ceased. They claim that since Paul used a different verb for tongues than for knowledge, that tongues and healings are the only gifts done away with. This is dubious interpretation to say the least since Paul may have used different verbs simply for the sake of variety! Second, when these well-meaning Christians claim that the perfect refers to the Bible (which we do believe is perfect), they are entering the arena of interpretation. Paul does not say these things will cease when the Bible is completed. He simply says that when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. The perfect may refer to the Bible; however, many believe it refers to something entirely different--the second coming of Christ when total perfection will come. This second interpretation fits better with vv. 12 than the view that perfect refers to the Bible. In v. 12 Paul says that at the present time we see only as in a mirror dimly but then face to face with full knowledge? Does that really sound like he is referring to the completion of the NT or to the second coming of Christ when we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2)? Moreover, on that day we will actually see God in the face (Rev. 22:4). Their theological reasoning seems shaky, to say the least.
Others claim that when you read the Bible you see that miracles really only occurred 3x in the history of the world: the days of Moses, of Elijah and Elisha, and of Jesus and the apostles. Since we don't live in those days any longer, then miracles no longer occur today. Moreover, they claim that Christian writers 300 years after the time of Christ no longer understood what the gifts of tongues were. They were not witnessing healings any longer. On the basis of this, many claim that these gifts passed away with the passing away of the apostles. (With all due respect though, if we based our Christianity upon the experiences of the 4th-century church which was already corrupt by that time, we would no longer be immersing people, preaching a gospel of salvation by grace through faith, etc. Scripture determines our beliefs, not the theologies of the 4th century.)
Whereas these well-meaning scholars have correctly adduced that the Bible records miracles only during these 3 major epochs in the biblical history, they have failed to notice the difference between these 3 epochs. The first 2 occurred before Pentecost, while the third occurred after Pentecost. During the first 2, whereas the Holy Spirit did descend upon His people, He did not take up permanent residence within them. He came and went. After Pentecost though the Holy Spirit took up permanent residence in God's people. Therefore, it is not surprising that the OT records the deaths of the 3 prophets just mentioned while Acts does not mention the death of Paul and Peter, miracle-workers in the NT. With the deaths of the 3 OT prophets, their ministries came to an end. Not so with Peter and Paul because it was not their ministry in the first place. It was the ministry of the exalted Jesus Himself who was working through the Holy Spirit. After Pentecost that ministry is permanent because He continually and permanently resides in God's people. One of the neatest sermons titles I've ever heard is "Acts 29." There is no Acts chapter 29 in the NT. Dr. J. W. MacGorman who coined that title was implying that our lives right now make up the conclusion to Acts. The ministry of the Spirit continues today in the lives of Jesus' people.
Since the Spirit is a healing kind of Spirit and since one of the characteristics of the age of the Spirit is the lame leaping and walking (as in this episode in Acts), if healings no longer exist, then we can logically deduce that the Spirit has been removed. If the Spirit is no longer distributed, then the Messiah Jesus who distributes the Spirit because He has been exalted to God's right hand--then the Messiah Jesus has been taken down a notch or 2 so that He is no longer exalted to God's right hand. Such reasoning is as logical as that of those who claim healings no longer occur.
Now to tie up some loose ends. Some claim that healings no longer occur because every Christian who is sick does not get healed. Well, if that logic holds, then Jesus didn't heal because He didn't heal everybody in His day either. In fact the man lame from birth would have been a prime candidate for Jesus to heal him since he begged at the temple, the very site where Jesus conversed with the Jewish religious leaders. Jesus apparently passed him up several times without healing him.
To claim there are no healers but only the gift of healing is like saying there are not teachers, only the gift of teaching. Why don't we see as many healings today as they did during Jesus' day? Probably because of our lack of faith. Faith is not only saying that Jesus can heal you but that Jesus will heal you. Since we claim Jesus won't, then we are operating in unbelief, a real killer in the area of healing.
So if you have faith, you will automatically be healed? Does your not being healed mean you don't have faith? The argument gets wearisome. God chooses to heal some and not others. He accomplishes His purpose either through healing or not healing. The decision is God's, not ours.
Probably one of the best pieces of evidence that healings, etc. still occur is that the people who claim these things to be true are credible. The other day Gary Nease was telling us the story of a young girl who had an inoperable aneurysm. There was basically nothing the hospital she was at could do. All the people could do was pray. Six weeks later have they had heard the dire news, they received the results from some new x-rays that had been taken and discovered that she no longer had the aneurysm. Is this story of healing true or not? We'll only know for sure on Judgment Day; however, the character of Gary Nease attests to its truth.
C. S. Lewis, in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, actually deals with this kind of issue. Two children in this story have gone to a magical world called Narnia (the place where children have adventures with Jesus). Edmund while in Narnia had actually done something wicked, while Lucy had done only good there. When they return to our world, Lucy excitedly tells her other brother and sister about going to Narnia. They assume that she is crazy. They know she is lying because Edmund claims that they had made it all up. Poor Lucy is devastated because they believe Edmund instead of her.
Peter, the older brother, approaches a wise professor who helps him analyze the situation:
"How do you know" asked the professor, "that your sister's story is not true?"
"oh, but--" began Susan, and then stopped. Anyone could see from the old man's face that he was perfectly serious. Then Susan pulled herself together and said, "But Edmund said that they had only been pretending."
"That is a point," said the Professor, "which certainly deserves consideration . . . Does your experience lead you to regard you brother or your sister as the more reliable? I mean, which is the more truthful?"
"That's just the funny thing about it, Sir," said peter. "Up till now, I'd have said Lucy every time."
The Professor said, "A charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed."
Susan said, "We thought there might be something wrong with Lucy."
"Madness you mean?" said the Professor quite coolly. "Oh, you can make your minds easy about that. One has only to look at her and talk to her to see that she is not mad."
"But then," said Susan and stopped. She had never dreamed that a grown-up would talk like the Professor and didn't know wha to think.
"Logic!" said the Professor half to himself. "Why don't they teach logic at these schools? There are only 3 possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious that she is not made. for the moment then and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth."