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THE LAME MAN HEALED

III. QUARTER, LESSON IV., JULY 24, ACTS 3:1-16

Golden Text—”And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong.”—Acts 3:16

VERSE 1. Peter and John were promptly about the Master’s business. The Pentecostal blessing had filled their hearts, and in their zeal to find some opportunity for service they went up to the temple at the hour of prayer, hoping and expecting to find there some opportunity for testifying to the truth.

VERSES 2,3. At the gate of the temple they met a poor beggar, lame from his birth, who asked for alms; and immediately the Spirit of God suggested to Peter the healing of this man in the name of the Lord Jesus as a means of calling the attention of the people to the fact of his resurrection and power. The suggestion was accompanied by the gift of faith (1 Cor. 12:9), and the inspired Apostle, strong in the assurance that the Lord would work with him in this matter, boldly commanded the man in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to rise up and walk.

VERSES 4-7 show that a remarkable cure was effected as soon as the man made the effort to obey the command of the Lord Jesus through Peter. Herein is a lesson for us to manifest the disposition to obedience to the Lord if we would secure his blessing.

VERSE 8 declares the completeness of the cure and the surprise and joy and gratitude of the man, as, walking and leaping and praising God, he entered the temple with Peter and John, a living witness to the power of the risen Lord Jesus whom they preached.

VERSES 9-11 show that the miracle had the desired effect of drawing the attention of the people to the apostles’ teaching.

VERSES 12-16 are a part of the testimony concerning the Lord Jesus. How bold and fearless Peter here appears since that pentecostal baptism of the holy spirit. There is no disposition now to deny the Lord: he fearlessly stands before the people who only a few months previous had crucified the Lord, and charges them with the crime; describing, too, the enormity of their guilt, and then declaring the fact of his resurrection, of which fact he claimed to be one of the witnesses. And this miracle which had been wrought in their sight, in the name of Jesus, he pointed to as an evidence of his exaltation and power.

Here, strange to say, just at the most interesting point of his discourse, our lesson closes, and the succeeding lesson is chosen from the next chapter, thus omitting the glorious doctrine which Peter that day set forth to the eager listeners, and which the miracle was only intended to introduce to their attention and to prove to them that the doctrine was of God. But let us proceed.

VERSES 17-19 were intended to encourage any who began to realize their national sin and

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their individual part in it, by showing that their sin might be forgiven, because they, as well as their rulers, had done it in at least partial ignorance. Thus he urges them to repentance in view of the fact that times of refreshing are coming from the presence of the Lord.

VERSES 20-24 declare that the Lord Jesus is coming again, and that the times of refreshing or restitution are due at his return. Then the apostle calls attention to the fact that this promised restitution was the theme of all the prophets, and bids them specially note what Moses had to say about Christ as a great prophet and teacher with authority and power, all of which will be fully realized at his return.

Glorious tidings were these for those who heard in faith. They had before them that very day an illustration of the restitution blessings. These things did Jesus through his faithful witnesses and thus shadowed forth the glory and blessings of his future kingdom. Then the Apostle reminded them of the promise made to their father Abraham—”In thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed:” i.e., that through the children of Abraham, exalted to power and great glory, these blessings of restitution were to flow to the whole world; and that they, as the children of Abraham and of the prophets who foretold these things, were the natural heirs of this promise—of the grand privilege of being exalted to such a position of favor with God and of power and influence as to be able to bless all the families of the earth.

Then he declares that it was for this very reason—because they were the natural seed of Abraham—that God was so gracious toward them as to offer to them first this special favor, over and above the great favor of restitution which he had promised for the whole world (verses 25,26); for, in order to bless others, they must of necessity be the more highly exalted. (Heb. 7:7.) Not indeed because of their personal worthiness was this offered to them. Ah, no: they had most signally manifested their unworthiness in killing the Prince of life. Nevertheless, they were told that God would forgive this terrible sin if they would repent and turn to their crucified and now highly exalted Lord and receive his great salvation. But if they would not repent they had no inheritance in the Abrahamic promise or covenant; they would not be owned as children

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of Abraham, but would be disinherited; “for God,” said Jesus, “is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”

The sermon that Peter preached that day, accompanied, as it was, by an actual demonstration of the Lord’s power to accomplish the great restitution work, must have made a deep impression upon the minds of his hearers. And as we read it to-day, in the early dawn of the blessed times of restitution, our hearts are made to rejoice also in the glorious prospect; especially since we have come to realize that the special favor which the natural seed of Abraham, except a small remnant, failed to appreciate and accept, we, Gentile believers, being by faith counted as the seed of Abraham, have fallen heirs to. Blessed inheritance! How little poor, prejudice-blinded Israel realized what they were rejecting; and how careful should we be who have been adopted in their stead into the family of God, lest we become blinded by the god of this world to the great value of this favor, and so fall after the same example of unbelief. Let us remember the Apostle Paul’s admonition—”Thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear.”

Referring again to the subject of the lesson—the healing of the lame man—let it be observed that this was not a prayer-cure, since there was no prayer offered, nor was the subject anointed according to the directions of the Apostle James; nor was it a faith-cure, since the subject evidently had no faith or expectancy of such a thing; nor was it a mind-cure; nor was it a partial cure gradually effected in the course of days or weeks. It was instantaneous, miraculous and complete, and in all of these respects different from the healings witnessed to-day, some of which we regard as a beginning of the restitution work, or rather, as an introduction to that work, and designed principally to call attention to the possibilities of the restitution times. It was one of the results of the special gifts granted to the early Church for the purpose of confirming their testimony and establishing the truth in candid and pious minds.

To witness for the truth in those days required special power: a mere statement of the fact that the despised and hated Nazarene, against whom the nation had conspired, and whom they had very recently put to a cruel and ignominious death, would not suffice to convince the people that this was indeed Jehovah’s Anointed, the long promised Messiah. Consequently, it was necessary for these chosen witnesses to these wonderful truths to have some supernatural powers granted to them to enforce their testimony, else they would be regarded merely as deluded fanatics; and, therefore, in addition to the blessings of the day of Pentecost, special gifts were conferred upon all the various members of the early Church, whereby the Lord endorsed their testimony.

There were, as Paul enumerated them (1 Cor. 12:8-10) gifts of wisdom, of knowledge, of faith, of healing, of miracles, of prophecy, of discerning of spirits, of speaking with unknown tongues. These gifts were necessary in those days, both for convincing the honest-hearted Israelites and for the edification of the infant Church, which was not then possessed of the bountiful supply of spiritual food now granted to us in the completed canon of both Old and New Testaments, with ability and helps to read them.

In the instance of our lesson two special gifts were exercised by the Apostle Peter, viz.: the gift of faith, and the gift of healing. Ordinarily, faith is not a gift, except in the remote sense of the God-given basis whereon a reasonable and sure hope may rest. But, in the case under consideration, Peter was made to know assuredly that the man before him was to be healed for the glory of God. This God-given persuasion seemed to come to him instantly, as soon as the lame man asked for alms. Observe that the man did not pray, either to God or to Peter and John, for healing. He evidently never thought of such a thing, much less expected it. Neither did the apostles pray for the man or ask the man to pray for himself; but, in the full assurance of the gift of special faith for this occasion, he exercised his gift of healing, commanding the man who had never walked before and who never expected to walk, and who needed the assuring hand of Peter to encourage him to make the effort, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth to rise up and walk.

The cure which immediately followed was evidently a complete soundness of the lame ankle. The man, filled with wonder and surprise, could at first hardly believe it himself. He tried standing, then began to step; and then, realizing his new strength and soundness, he leaped for joy, and, praising the Lord, entered with the apostles into the temple to hear what more these men would have to say about this one in whose name the miracle had been performed.

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— July 1, 1892 —