Changing Conditions

Introduction:

We have learned about the “portents and signs” by the apostles.

They caused respect for the apostles among believers.

The apostles continued to exercise powers they’ve long had.

We also know that, early on, the public had a favorable view of Jesus disciples.

Things will begin to change.

What causes controversy?

It was also common for them to meet in the Temple, we learned.

We have no timeline, so we do not know for certain how much time has passed.

John 14-17 and the promised opposition.

Lk. 6:22-23.

Normal Activity Continues

Peter and John attended the late afternoon sacrifice and public prayer time.

Luke says it occurred at/around the ninth hour.

This equals 3 PM in the afternoon.

Josephus, below, describes Jewish devotion to their sacrifices despite the Roman siege under Pompey.

The Works of Josephus: New Updated Edition Chapter 4: How Pompey, When the Citizens of Jerusalem Shut Their Gates against Him, Besieged the City, and Took It by Force; As Also What Other Things He Did in Judea

(65) and anyone may hence learn how very great piety we exercise towards God, and the observance of his laws, since the priests were not at all hindered from their sacred ministrations, by their fear during this siege, but did still twice each day, in the morning and about the ninth hour, offer their sacrifices on the altar; nor did they omit those sacrifices, if any melancholy accident happened, by the stones that were thrown among them.

Another Major Participant Introduced: the Lame Man

Luke explains the presence of a lame man at the Temple.

He was born lame.

Unnamed individuals brought him and placed him at the Beautiful Gate.

He was a daily presence at the Temple, presumably at times when there were be high traffic.

He came to beg or to ask for “alms” from those who entered the Tempmle.

The Encounter

Luke describes the lame man spotted Peter and John as they were about to enter the Temple.

He was asking to receive alms.

This could imply, as in the case of beggars, that he repeatedly asked them for money.

Peter stared at him and John did as well.

They told him to “look at us.”

This could imply that as the man begged, he did not look at the two.

They wanted him to raise his head to look at them.

He looked up in anticipation of receiving money from them.

Peter then takes the lead, as he often does in these early chapters.

He tells him they have no money, at least with them while they are there.

What they do have, however, they will share.

He commanded him to be walking around in Jesus’ name.

Peter grabs him by the right hand and raises him.

When he does so, the man suddenly has his feet and ankles strengthened.

He entered the Temple with them.

From there, he draws attention, by “walking, leaping, and praising God.”

The crowd comes together, thereafter.

Introduction (Part 2):

The man neither anticipated being healed nor asked for it.

Peter, rather than being able to give a lame man money, uses the ability the apostles had to remove his need for asking alms altogther.

This would have radically changed this man’s life.

It appears that Peter and John did not “share the gospel” with him.

Instead, they invoked the name of Jesus as Messiah as the basis of their command to him to walk.

We, then, must proceed with caution about what happened.

We should let Luke let Peter explain.

Peter’s Second Public Address

Peter’s address takes an anticipatory turn.

Unlike his Pentecost address when he responded to specific claims, he reacts to a growing crowd and to the sight of the man clinging on to them.

He expects prior knowledge.

His fellow Israelites should not be surprised at this at all.

They should already know that Peter and John have not made him to walk by their own power or religious devotion.

Peter, like he did on Pentecost, frames this as a conflict between the people and God.

The people rejected the Holy and Righteous One and requested a murderous man be graciously granted to them.

They killed the originator of life.

God raised him from the dead.

The apostles are witnesses of that fact.

The difficulty of Acts 3:16-17.

What is vague are possessors of faith.

What is not vague is that Jesus name can be trusted/is reliable.

As a consequence of the reliability of Jesus’ person (name), this man had his health restored.

Peter’s ultimate point appears to be that the ability of the apostles to do miracles such as this indicates the reliability of the claim that God raised Jesus from the dead and that he is Messiah.

Israel’s Repentance and the Possibility of Restoration

Peter contrasts, yet again, the Jews’ view and God’s view.

He explains that the Jews rejected Jesus out of misunderstanding.

Like in his previous discourse, he takes the kindest possible interpretation of what they did.

Their rulers acted this way as well.

He sounds like Joseph in Gen. 50:20-21.

God, on the other hand, brought to pass what He had announced He would do.

He accomplished that through their rejection of Jesus.

He then calls upon his audience to repent and return so their sins might be erased.

However, that is not the end of the thought.

The erasure of their sins is not stopping point by itself.

Once that repentance occurs, what might happen is that “times of relief from the face of the Lord” might come, and He might send the one previously designated as Messiah, Jesus, to them.

Finally, for this part, he explains that it is necessary for heaven to receive Jesus until the times of restoration of all which God spoke through the mouths of the his holy prophets.

Note the message of 1 Peter 1 that sounds similar to this point.

The need to repent was already part of the Jewish scholarly understanding of what was needed prior to the coming of Messiah.

Peter preaches such a message, but he has a different frame of reference.

Israel needed to repent of its rejection of Jesus as Messiah.

Romans 9:30ff.

Ro. 11:25-32. (God treats both Jews and Gentiles equally).