Acts 3:7

And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ancle bones received strength. AND HE TOOK HIM BY THE RIGHT HAND, AND LIFTED HIM UP. Such actions of the apostle were so strikingly like those of his Lord in the performance of several of his miracles (Matthew 8:15; Matthew 9:27; Matthew 14:31; Matthew 20:34; Mark 8:25; Luke 7:14) that he would seem to have been conscious that his now glorified Lo...

1-11 The apostles and the first believers attended the temple worship at the hours of prayer. Peter and John seem to have been led by a Divine direction, to work a miracle on a man above forty years old, who had been a cripple from his birth. Peter, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, bade him rise up and walk. Thus, if we would attempt to good purpose the healing of men's souls, we must go forth in the name and power of Jesus Christ, calling on helpless sinners to arise and walk in the way of holiness, by faith in Him. How sweet the thought to our souls, that in respect to all the crippled faculties of our fallen nature, the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth can make us whole! With what holy joy and rapture shall we tread the holy courts, when God the Spirit causes us to enter therein by his strength!...

Verse Acts 3:7. _IMMEDIATELY HIS FEET AND ANCLE BONES RECEIVED STRENGTH_] The suddenness of the cure was the _proof_ of the miracle: his walking and leaping were the _evidences_ of it....

AND HE TOOK HIM - He took hold of his hand. To take hold of the hand in such a ease was an offer of aid, an indication that Peter was sincere, and was an inducement to him to make an effort. This may be employed as a beautiful illustration of the manner of God when he commands people to repent and believe. He does not leave them alone; he extends help, and aids their efforts. If they tremble, and feel that they are weak, and needy, and helpless, his hand is stretched out and his power exerted to impart strength and grace. HIS FEET AND ANKLE-BONES - The fact that strength was immediately imparted; that the feet, long lame, were now made strong, was a full and clear proof of miraculous power....

EXPOSITION ACTS 3:1 _Were going up _for _went up together, _A.V. and T.R. PETER AND JOHN. The close friendship of these two apostles is remarkable. The origin of it appears to have been their partnership in the fishing-boats in which they pursued their trade as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. For St. Luke tells us that the sons of Zebedee were "partners with Simon," and helped him to take the miraculous draught of fishes (Luke 5:10). We find the two sons of Zebedee associated with Peter in the inner circle of the Lord's apostles, at the Transfiguration, at the raising of Jairus's daughter, and at the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. But the yet closer friendship of Peter and John first appears in their going together to the palace of Caiaphas on the ni

AND HE TOOK HIM BY THE RIGHT HAND,.... In imitation of Christ, whom he had often seen using the same action on such occasions: AND LIFT HIM UP; believing he was cured, and that it might be manifest. The word him is expressed in the Alexandrian copy, and in some others, and in the Oriental versions, which is a supplement in our translation: AND IMMEDIATELY HIS FEET AND ANKLE BONES RECEIVED STRENGTH; where, it seems, his lameness lay. The Vulgate Latin renders it, his bases and soles, which may include his legs and thighs, as well as feet; and the Syriac version, "his feet and soles"; and the Arabic version, "his soles, and the muscles adjoining to his heels"; and the Ethiopic version furthest off of all, "he was strengthened in his feet, and in his loins"; his disorder might be of the paralytic kind....

Acts 3:1. _Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour._ Peter and John seem to have been linked in closest friendship. Peter had been brought back by John when he was almost despairing after having denied his Master. John lovingly found him out, and made him his associate; and now they «went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer.» Observe, here, how very sweetly the Old Testament dispensation melts into the new. The Temple was no longer what it had been before; the type was of no further use now that the great Antitype of the Temple had come; yet these apostles still went up to it at the hour of prayer. There are some men who are great at destroying. It will be time to destroy the old when the new is quite ready; and even then, it may be very possible to let the darkness gradually melt away into a twilight, and so the day...

CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The Healing of the lame Man (Acts 3:1)._ 2. Peter's address and appeal (Acts 3:12). 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 5:1). 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 crucifi

EXAMPLE OF THE WORKS OF THE APOSTLES. The cure of lame persons is frequently spoken of in the Synoptic Gospels, as a mark of the Messianic age; but no such cure is there recorded. Paul deals with a similar case at Lystra (Acts 14:8). The apostles generally, but not invariably, go in pairs, as Luke 10:1 prescribes. So Peter and John here (_cf. Acts 8:14_) go for their devotions to the Temple at 3 P.M., the hour of the evening sacrifice. In the following narrative it is Peter only who acts and speaks. At the gate called Beautiful, possibly the same as Nicanor's gate on the E. side of the Temple, and the favourite entrance, they find a man congenitally lame. He asks alms: they ask his whole attention, which he gives them. Peter cannot give h

Peter and John used to go up to the Temple at the hour of prayer at three o'clock in the afternoon, and a man who had been lame from the day of his birth was in the habit of being carried there. Every day they used to put him at the gate of the Temple which is called the Beautiful Gate, so that he could beg for alms from the people who were going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the Temple he asked to be given alms. Peter fixed his eyes on him with John and said, "Look at us." He paid attention to them because he was expecting to get something from them. Peter said to him, "Silver and gold I do not possess, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth walk!" And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. Immediately his feet and ankle bones were strengthened, and he leaped up and stood and walked about; and he went into the Temple...