Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked for alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have given I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God: 10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.
We don’t know this man’s name; we only know that all his life, he has sat at the Beautiful gate to the temple, unable to enter because he is a cripple. (There are various arguments about this, for Leviticus 21 proscribes anyone from the priestly line who is crippled from making offerings; however, it does not bar cripples from entering the temple. But later on, when David is attacking Jerusalem, the Jebusites are so certain of victory that they taunt David., claiming that even the lame and the blind can keep David out. 2 Samuel 5:6 David now led his troops to Jerusalem to fight against the Jebusites who lived there. “You’ll never come in here,” they told him. “Even the blind and lame could keep you out!” For they thought they were safe. 7 But David and his troops defeated them and captured the stronghold of Zion, now called the City of David. 8 When the insulting message from the defenders of the city reached David, he told his troops, “Go up through the water tunnel into the city and destroy those ‘lame’ and ‘blind’ Jebusites. How I hate them.”
That Scripture says nothing about the temple. Infuriated at the Jebusite insults, David responds to them in kind, promising to deal with the so-called lame and blind. Through the years, David’s response to the Jebusites has gotten twisted into a vicious regulation barring cripples from entering the temple to worship; meanwhile, David is actually giving the Jebusites a cheeky retort. But for hundreds of years, crippled believers have been relegated to the surroundings of the temple.
Peter and John are going to pray at 3 PM when they meet this man on the temple steps. Suddenly, Peter and John have a nudge from the Holy Spirit that they are to pray for this man. How long they hesitate, we don’t know. Perhaps Peter looks at John and then John looks back at Peter. Peter shrugs his big shoulders and then commands the man to walk in the Name of Jesus. As Peter prays, the man is healed and immediately begins walking and leaping and praising God as he enters the temple. Onlookers are stunned, for this man is a well-known beggar whose legs have been shriveled since birth, and now those same legs are strong and muscular.
At this point, Peter and John are probably as thrilled as the crippled man. Even though Jesus previously sent out the disciples to teach, preach, heal, and cast out demons, the disciples went out safe in the knowledge that Jesus’ authority was with them. Perhaps they even had the feeling that if they messed up, Jesus would save the situation. But now Jesus is in heaven, and the disciples are on their own. True, Pentecost has come, and the Holy Spirit has appeared, empowering Peter to preach convincingly. But still, the questions nag. What kind of spiritual authority do the disciples really have? How sufficient is the Holy Spirit? As Peter and John stand there in the temple, they try to remember exactly what Jesus taught them. The night Jesus was betrayed he tried to impart as much information about the Holy Spirit as possible.
John 16:5 “But now I am going away to the one who sent me; and none of you seems interested in the purpose of my going; none wonders why. 6 Instead you are only filled with sorrow. 7 But the fact of the matter is that it is best for you that I go away, for if I don’t, the Comforter won’t come. If I do, he will—for I will send him to you.
8 “And when he has come, he will convince the world of its sin, and of the availability of God’s goodness, and of deliverance from judgment. 9 The world’s sin is unbelief in me; 10 there is righteousness available because I go to the Father and you shall see me no more; 11 there is deliverance from judgment because the prince of this world has already been judged.
12 “Oh, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t understand it now. 13 When the Holy Spirit, who is truth, comes, he shall guide you into all truth, for he will not be presenting his own ideas, but will be passing on to you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He shall praise me and bring me great honor by showing you my glory.”
As long as Jesus was in a human body, that body was subject to sickness and even to death. But once Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit was released to descend on the disciples and empower them. The Holy Spirit is not limited by time, space, or physical limitations.
It happened while I was in my third year of general surgery training. This poor lady had uterine cancer that had spread throughout her pelvis. She had endured all the chemotherapy and all the radiation therapy she could stand. Her right leg was three times the size of her left and we had to insert a filter into the inferior vena cava to prevent her from throwing blood clots to her lungs. Then she got appendicitis and underwent an open operation for appendectomy. When I anointed this lady with hospital skin lotion and prayed for her, all either of us thought I was asking was for the pain to go away, for she was in constant agony. Two years later, I was rounding on patients to be operated the next day. When I entered one lady’s room, she looked at me and then said, “You don’t recognize me, do you?” The lady in the bed was the lady with the incurable cancer, the lady whose right leg was grotesquely swollen. God had healed her miraculously and she was admitted to have a small incisional hernia repaired at the site of her previous appendectomy scar.
Although I have witnessed many miracles of healing during my medical career, most of them have occurred through other people’s prayers. But we should always pray, no matter how hopeless the situation appears. One lady came to our hospital from Togo, stayed a few days, and then went to the home of a local pastor. At 7:30 that night the lady died. Because of local custom, other women in the family remained in the same room with her, and it was fortunate they did so. Two hours after the lady died, she suddenly began breathing and talking. God raised that woman from the dead.
Why am I telling these stories? If you had questioned Peter and John about the man at the Beautiful gate before they went there, they would undoubtedly have agreed that the man was a hopeless cripple. They would have scoffed at the idea that they were men of great faith. Yet, when the Holy Spirit moved in their hearts, they prayed and God answered.
God doesn’t play favorites. If we will pray, God will continue to answer. We are not responsible for results; we are only responsible for being obedient. So, pray and see what God will do!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to pray, not worrying about the results. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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