The leaders were in an impossible situation. They and other members of their family gathered with the other religious leaders to question Peter and John ( Acts 4:5-14). Acts 4:4 records that the number of believers (only counting the men) rose to 5,000.Ĭaiaphas was actually the High Priest at this time but his father-in-law, Annas, still held the honorary title. They had Peter and John put in jail overnight.Įven while Peter and John were in jail the people must have been considering what they had said. To top it off some leaders, the Sadducees, didn’t even believe in resurrection and that was a major part of what Peter was preaching. They must have been frustrated because they thought they had taken care of this “Jesus problem” earlier when they played a leading part in his crucifixion. This was not the message that the religious leaders wanted the people to hear. It was always in God’s plan for His people to accept Jesus as their true king. His sermon was much like his earlier one (Sermon on Pentecost). When the crowd gathered Peter took the opportunity to preach. It became a gathering place for believers. The apostles would eventually perform many miracles at Solomon’s Colonnade. Peter and John must have thought back to Jesus and about how he once stood in this very place (Solomon’s Colonnade: John 10:22-24 and Acts 3:11) and said that the miracles he did in his Father’s name spoke for themselves ( John 10:25-30). The people had seen this man many times so they realised what an amazing miracle this was and wanted to hear more. Upon being healed the man did not praise Peter and John but God himself (3:8) because he knew where the power had come from. It is God who turned this event into a wonderful opportunity to preach to many people. Later, Peter recalled it an “act of kindness” on the part of the apostles. They were most probably on their way to join in the afternoon prayer time or possibly just trying to connect with more people in the temple area to tell them about Jesus. Healing this man was most probably not on Peter and John’s “to do” list for their day. When he asked for money he must not have even been looking up because Peter had to get his attention and tell him to look at him while he talked ( Acts 3:1-5). Years of begging must have made this man feel dejected and disengaged. He had been crippled since birth ( Acts 3:2) and was over 40 years old ( Acts 4:22). The man in this story was carried by someone and put at the temple gate each day to beg from those entering the temple courts. In today’s story we learn more about the types of things that happened to the apostles as they went about the business of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone around them.īeing disabled in the first century meant total dependence on family and friends. It seems many who had come for the feast continued to stay on in Jerusalem to have fellowship with other new believers and to learn more from the apostles ( The First Church). Peter had recently preached a sermon to a large crowd and over 3,000 became Christians. Jews from near and far were still gathered in the city to celebrate the Pentecost Feast. Click here for an overview of the Book of Acts
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