Acts 3:11-26

Background

What is Solomon’s Portico and where is it?

Location: Portico of Solomon

A colonnade built by Solomon on the east side of the temple where rabbis met with their Disciples to engage in public teaching.

This portico ran along the eastern wall of Herod’s temple in the court of the Gentiles.

The early church in Jerusalem often gathered here.

What kind of bible literature is this?

Narrative story of what things are like.

What’s Happening?

What has led up to this miracle?

Ultimately what had happened was due to the action of God, the very same God who had revealed himself to the patriarchs and constituted himself the God of the people of Israel; the reason for stressing this will become apparent in verses 25f. This God had glorified his servant, a phrase drawn from Isaiah 52:13, the first verse of the last and most important of the passages dealing with the Servant of Yahweh. In other words, prophecy was now being fulfilled, for Peter was claiming that what had happened to Jesus was the divine glorification of God’s Servant. The identification of Jesus as the Servant is found in 3:26, 4:27, 30. These are the only places in the New Testament where the name is applied to him, but the prophecies about the suffering of the Servant are cited or alluded to in Mark 10:45; 14:24; Luke 22:37; John 12:38; Acts 8:32f.; 1 Peter 2:22–24; and elsewhere. This combination of references suggests a primitive understanding of Jesus which is remarkably absent from the Letters and later writings.

The Miracle

Two basic points are clearly made, however. First, the miracle which resulted in a well-known man being made perfectly sound in body, physically whole, or intactness restored before the very eyes of the crowd depended on the power associated with the name of this Jesus.

What does Luke mean when he says this happened by the power of the “name of Jesus?”

In the authority of; power of

Second, this power became effective through faith/trust in the name of Jesus. Such faith was possible through Jesus: the proclamation of his power made it possible for people to believe.

From where and how was faith/trust in the authority of Jesus shown?

True, we are not told in the story that the man displayed faith, but the way in which he praised God after his cure could well imply this; alternatively, the faith might be that of Peter.

Why was it important to make this clear?

In any case, any suggestion that there was something magical about the miracle is deliberately ruled out.

The Blame Game

Who is responsible and does it matter?

18. Yet what the Jews did in ignorance had in reality furthered the plan of God, foretold by the prophets, that the Messiah should suffer (2:23; 17:3; 26:22f).

What To Do With It

19. God’s action has now created the conditions in which the Jews may repent and be forgiven for their sins. Luke commands it.

What does it mean to repent?

1. Secular Greek. The verb has such varied meanings as “to convert,” “to change,” “to turn to or against,” “to wander,” “to walk,” “to turn to a matter,” “to pay regard to,” “to note.” The noun means “attention,” “returning,” “repentance,” “conversion,” “change of mind.”

Some confusion here as to what Luke means. Turning to a new way of life - the fact that sins are forgiven (free to be obedient) and away from a former way of life where one had to offer sacrifices for forgiveness. Turning away from the sacrificial system for some and the idol worship system for others.

NT - Physical movement. Inner change and the renewing of relationship that follows.

In Acts 3: Turn to the fact that sin is forgiven.

What Follows

What comes to mind when you think of “times of refreshing?”

Times - a length of time. Generally refers to the final era of salvation associated with the restoration of the rule of God.

Restore - to reconstitute (a kingdom). Restoration.

Judaism - Josephus used it for the return from exile. Philo - the exodus and mystically for the soul.

NT - Acts 3: the restitution of that of which the prophets have spoken; the establishment of what they have spoken. It is not talking about personal conversion.

The prophets spoke of the restored integrity of creation. The times of refreshing mark the beginning of the transformation through the messianic work of Jesus.

Origen - the restoration of all created beings; the ultimate removal of all hostility to God in the medical and political sense.

Perfect health/wholeness, completeness. The physical wholeness or intactness restored to the lame man.

The word for the second result is parousia (coming of the messiah). What is the purpose of the parousia?

20–21. The second result will be the coming of Jesus from heaven - the messianic age or fulfillment of the KOG (parousia).

The setting up of his kingdom. The times are not the period before that but rather the period of fulfillment of the prophecies concerned with the parousia itself.

The prophets were primarily concerned with events in their own time and imminent future with an element of future hope not fulfilled at the time or imperfectly fulfilled.

24 - All the other prophets looked forward to the "days of fulfillment." All of the OT could be seen to bear witness to Jesus and the setting up of the church.

The prophetic hope of God's final intervention and establishment of his perfect rule awaited future reality.

What does the bible have to say about when it will happen?

Already and not yet.

It is quite probable, however, that there were some people who expected the parousia to happen speedily, and the church had to remind them that, as Jesus had taught, the parousia would not take place immediately.

Promises

Who were these prophetic promises for?

In this covenant God had promised blessings to his descendants, but had also affirmed that through his posterity all the families of the earth would be blessed (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; Gal. 3:8). This is an interesting quotation. The original version (the lxx) has ‘nations’, a word that might be interpreted to mean the Gentiles; Peter’s citation uses a word of similar meaning, but one that leaves it open whether the Gentiles are in view (Hanson, p. 76).

25. These prophetic promises were made for the Jewish people. They were the ‘descendants of the prophets’, and therefore they could expect to see the fulfilment of the promises made to the people of Israel and to benefit from them.

However, in view of the next verse (‘to you first’), it is likely that the word ‘families’ is meant to refer to both Jews and Gentiles, although the reference to the Gentiles is at this stage a quiet hint (contrast 13:46).

Forgiveness of Sin

What is meant by the way of sin?

The blessing bestowed in the covenant with Abraham by means of Jesus thus consists in enabling men to depart from the way of sin and thus to be fit to receive the other spiritual gifts associated with the Messiah.