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 with them, walking about and leaping and praising God. Everyone saw him walking about and praising God; and they recognized him as the man who had sat at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple to receive alms. They were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.
THE Jewish day began at 6 am and ended at 6 pm. For devout Jews, there were three special times for prayer – morning, noon and evening. They agreed that prayer was effective wherever it was offered, but they felt that it was doubly precious when offered in the Temple courts. It is very interesting that the apostles kept up the customs in which they had been trained. It was the hour of prayer, and Peter and John were going into the Temple to observe it. A new faith had come to them, but they did not use that as an excuse to break the old law. They were aware that the new faith and the old discipline could walk hand in hand.
In the middle east, it was the custom for beggars to sit at the entrance to a temple or a shrine. Such a place was considered the best of all positions because, when people are on their way to worship God, they are disposed to be generous to others. W. H. Davies, the tramp poet, tells how one of his vagrant friends told him that, whenever he came into a new town, he looked for a church spire with a cross on the top and began to beg in that area. Love of other people and love of God must always go hand in hand.
This incident brings us face to face with the question of miracles in the apostolic times. There are certain definite things to be said.
(1) Such miracles did happen. In Acts 4:16, we read how the Sanhedrin knew that they must accept the miracle. The enemies of Christianity would have been the first to deny miracles if they could; but they never even try to deny them.
(2) Why did they stop? Certain suggestions have been made. (a) There was a time when miracles were necessary. In that period, they were needed as a guarantee of the truth and the power of the Christian message in its initial attack on the world. (b) At that time, two special circumstances came together. First, there were still those among the apostles who had had personal contact with Jesus Christ, which could never be repeated. Second, there was an atmosphere of expectancy when faith was in full flow. These two things combined to produce effects which were unique.
(3) The real question is not ‘Why have miracles stopped?’ but ‘Have they stopped?’ It is the simple fact that any doctor or surgeon can now do things which in apostolic times would have been regarded as miracles. God has revealed new truth and new knowledge to us, and through that revelation they are still performing miracles. As a great doctor said, ‘I bandage the wounds; but God heals them.’ For Christians, there are still miracles all around if they have eyes to see.
THE SHAME OF THE CROSS
Acts 3:11–16
As he clung to Peter and John, everyone came running to them in the colonnade which is called Solomon’s, in a state of complete astonishment. When Peter saw them, he said to them: ‘Men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? Or why do you keep staring at us, as if we had made him walk by our own power or goodness? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, your fathers’ God, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and disowned before Pilate, when he had given judgment for his release. You disowned the holy and the just one and you asked for a man who was a murderer to be given to you as a favour. You killed the pioneer of life, but God raised him from the dead; and we are his witnesses. And his name, through faith in his name, has given strength to this man whom you see and know. It is the faith which is through him, which has thus given him back his health in presence of you all.’
HERE sound three of the dominant notes of early Christian preaching.
(1) The early preachers always stressed the basic fact that the crucifixion was the most shameful act in human history. Whenever they speak of it, there is a kind of shocked horror in their voices. They tried to wound people’s minds with the realization of the sheer enormity of what happened on the cross. It is as if they said: ‘Look what sin can do.’
(2) The early preachers always stressed the vindication of the resurrection. It is the simple fact that without the resurrection the Church would never have come into being. The resurrection was proof that Jesus was indestructible and was Lord of life and of death. It was the final proof that behind him there was God and therefore a power which nothing could stop.
(3) The early preachers always stressed the power of the risen Lord. They never regarded themselves as the sources of power but only as channels of power. They were well aware of their limitations but were also well aware that there was no limitation to what the risen Christ could do through them and with them. Here lies the secret of the Christian life. As long as Christians think only of what they can do and be, there can be nothing but failure and frustration and fear. But when a Christian thinks of ‘not I, but Christ in me’, there can be nothing but peace and power.
THE NOTES OF PREACHING
Acts 3:17–26
‘Now, brothers, I know that it was through ignorance that you did it, just as your rulers did. But God has thus fulfilled those things which he foretold by the mouths of all the prophets that his Anointed One should suffer. Repent, then, and turn so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come to you from God, and so that he may send Jesus Christ who has already been preached to you. It is necessary that heaven should receive him until the times when all things shall be restored, times of which God spoke through the mouths of his holy prophets since the world began. Moses said: “The Lord, your God, will raise up from your brethren a prophet like me. You must listen to him in everything that he will say to you; and it will be that everyone who will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from the people.” And all the prophets who spoke from Samuel, and those who succeeded him, also announced the tidings of these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers when he said: “In your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” It is to you first that God, when he raised up his son, sent him to bless you by making each one of you turn away from your evil deeds.’
ALMOST all the notes of early Christian preaching are sounded in this short passage.
(1) It begins with a note of mercy and warning combined. It was in ignorance that the Jews perpetrated the terrible deed of the crucifixion; but that ignorance is no longer possible, and, therefore, there can be no excuse for further rejection of Jesus Christ. This note of the terrifying responsibility of knowledge sounds all through the New Testament. ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see”, your sin remains’ (John 9:41). ‘If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin’ (John 15:22). ‘Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin’ (James 4:17). To have seen the full light of the revelation of God is the greatest of privileges, but it is also the most terrible of responsibilities.
(2) The obligation this knowledge brings is the obligation to repent and to turn. The two words go closely together. Repent might simply mean to change one’s mind; and it is an easier thing to change one’s mind than to change one’s life. But this change of mind is to result in turning away from the old way and making a new start.
