NEW TESTAMENT SURVEY
THE BOOK OF ACTS
LECTURE 3
#BEGIN_VERSE_COMMENTARY:Acts 3
1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
This was their soulwinning time….daily… it was around 3 pm. It might be wise to have daily corporate prayer times at the church’s building.
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;
These rich, huge, mega-church buildings might be referred to as “Beautiful”. So much of their money goes to helping the building and little goes out to help those truly in need.
<TOPIC:Don’t disregard those that are specifically asking for help from you and your church. Just think if they laid these folk outside our church building….
3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.
The lame man should have asked for ‘legs’, not ‘arms’…
Has anyone ever asked you “can you spare a quarter?”…how do you respond?...
I guess this man thought that Peter and John had some money; they probably didn’t look like they were impoverished.
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.
He probably was asking many at the same time, so Peter had him look on ‘us’.
There is something to fastening your eyes on someone who is in spiritual need; a boldness, a seriousness, a compassion.
It’s ok to witness to people beggin for money? Should one give a beggar money (or the needed item), or should they simply give them their real need, the gospel?!
6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
Is the typical Missionary loaded with money? Apparently Peter and John had no money on them. The life of a Missionary might be summed up as “Silver and gold have I none…”.
Give the beggars what they really need…spiritual truth, spiritual blessings. Give them what you ‘have’. Also, make sure to do something for their physical situation…Peter did.
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.
Did the fellow get saved here? (see vs. 16)
This is the type of healing that took place with the sign gifts; complete, immediate, impressive. There were no questions about it; the man was indeed healed.
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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.
11 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.
The goal was to draw people to belief in Jesus Christ. That is why it is done ‘in Jesus Christ’s name’. After one is healed, they are to be a great testimony of God’s power. Thus, have the newly saved (healed) person’s testimony of Jesus Christ spread throughout the whole town.
<TOPIC:Today, people are filled with wonder and amazement at the charismatics, but, sadly, not the fundamental Baptists! That’s why these groups are growing so fast. Satan, the great counterfeiter, is stealing away the people by the masses!<TOPIC:
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
Whenever God does some wonder in you life, make very sure you divert all glory and praise to God. Tell the folks that it was nothing that you did…it was all God! Do the Charismatics follow this?
Use situations where God has obviously worked in somebody’s life to point out the error of people’s beliefs. Peter here goes from the miracle to calling them murderers in 10 seconds! Take advantage of situations dealing with spiritual matters that catch lost folk’s attention.
One of the main purposes for the apostles was to be as witnesses of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
16 And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Put your faith in His name…His title…who He is…all that you know about Him. Peter surely had faith, but did the lame man? Can a person who does not have faith in Christ be healed in this manner?
17 And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
There’s a difference between willingly ignorant and just plain ignorant. Those who ‘should have known better’ but didn’t or willingly ignorant. If those men really knew that that was the Messiah, then, I assume, they would not have had him crucified.
Why don’t the Jews believe that Jesus was the Messiah? The O.T. speaks much about a suffering Saviour. It is a ‘known’ fact of scripture. This truth about Jesus Christ was not hidden or found in an obscure passage of scripture.
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Repentance is necessary in order to have your sins blotted out. <TOPIC:The theThe main sin to repent of is false belief. When one repents here, the change is a correct belief in Jesus Christ. I firmly believe, however, that there needs to be other real specific sins in one’s life that they acknowledge as such and repent of (heart change towards it). Back then, the main sin to repent of was not believing that Jesus was the Messiah. Today, many easily believe that Jesus is the Messiah, but have a myriad of wordly sins that they are drowning in which need to be repented of.
What is being ‘converted’ mean here? I suppose it refers to converting over to believing Jesus is the Messiah. We hear terms like ‘conversion experience’ and ‘converts’…hopefully we know what is being referred to with them.
This is the only use of ‘times of refreshing’ in our Bible. The Rapture, or the Millenium, may herald in this ‘times of refreshing’; there certainly will be refreshing times with either of these two events! This ‘sending’ of Jesus Christ could either be the Rapture or the 2nd Coming.
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
This is the only use of ‘restitution’ in our Bible. Are the times of refreshing the same as the times of restitution?
Restitution speaks of getting even, payback, making things right. This could be the Tribulation, or the Millenium, or after the Millenium. Both refreshing and restitution may simply be referring to the day of the Lord (Rapture to New world). The verse seems to say that Jesus Christ will be in heaven until these ‘times’ begin, i.e. the 2nd Coming.
This ‘Day of the Lord’ has been spoken of throughout the Old Testament (especially in many of the major and minor prophets).
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
Moses spoke of this in Deut. 18:15,18. The Messiah would be a Prophet, Jewish, and like Moses (widespread acceptance as the leader, with God’s power clearly being shown through Him). The Jews surely aren’t hearing what this Prophet is saying to them!
Every prophet; Obadiah, Micah, Zechariah, etc.! The O.T. (especially the Prophets) speaks repeatedly of the coming Messiah.
Samuel spoke of this in 2 Sam 7:16.<TOPIC:>
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
The Jews were special; they were who the Messiah would come from, and they would be ‘first’ to have opportunity to believe on Messiah. It wasn’t so much a national salvation, but, rather a spiritual one: turning away from iniquities.
Acts 4
1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,
2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.
The Sadducees did not believe in the ‘resurrection of the dead’ (the Pharisees did).
Who are churches’ biggest enemy? Often-times it is the religious community.
They (including the government) will become ‘grieved’ at some doctrine or practice that you are teaching or following and will seek for legal authorities to lay hands on you and put you in hold.
Do you think the Mormons or JW’s or Catholic leaders would be happy if you were teaching their members the truth of the Bible? How about the Charismatics when we teach that their ‘sign gifts’ are most likely originating from Satan himself?! If these religious groups could get you thrown in Jail, they would….and they just might.
4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
Even though we have a lot of negative responses to our evangelism efforts, at least ‘a few’ will believe…maybe even ‘many’! Maybe in the course of 50 years of our church doing this week by week, there will be 5000 ! That would mean we would have to have 2 every week getting saved…a reasonable possibility! “Howbeit”…..
5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,
6 And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?
A great spiritual victory sometimes is immediately followed by a Satanic inspired trial.
The ‘kindred’ got together on this; watch out for ‘family block’ power plays within a church.
These religious leaders were honed in on ‘who gave you the right to do this’? They asked that of Jesus, too.
If we were asked this question, what would you say?...
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,
9 If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
10 Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Being filled with the Holy Ghost will often manifest itself through bold, courageous speaking (preaching) of the truths of the Bible to Christ-rejecting Bible-deniers….as Peter did here.
There were probably many other men named ‘Jesus’ in that region, so Peter clarified which one (of Nazareth).
When asked about why you go to church, or what is it all about that you are doing, boldly declare it is because of and for Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God!...
11 This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
The Pharisees were the builders of Judaism. The head cornerstone for salvation is Jesus Christ; and Jesus is the head cornerstone for ‘the church’…i.e. that church He started in Jerusalem. A church is likened unto a building (House, Temple). All true church’s of the Lord’s must come from this cornerstone. And, all salvation must come from Jesus Christ.
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
What other ‘names’ do people say there is salvation in? Buddha, Krishna, Allah, Hindu gods, New Age Christ…
This is probably the most provacative statement that one could make today…and then! It pierces into peoples’ whole system of religious thought; it goes to their very soul.
13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.