Acts 3

Acts 3:1-4

Subdivision 4. (Acts 3:1-26; Acts 4:1-37.)The Testing of the Nation. We are now to see the testing of the nation by the offer of divine grace to it as a whole, -the distinct promise that, even yet, if they will now repent and receive Him, Jesus, though in heaven, will return, and the blessing prophesied for them shall be fulfilled. The commission already given as to the Gentiles lies, therefore, still in abeyance, because the question of relation between Jew and Gentile in the new condition introduced will be affected by the answer given to such an offer. The hostility of the leaders is apparent from the outset; but that which ends hope is that the people as a whole more and more identify themselves with the position of the leaders; and by and by it is from the Jewish element that even in far-off cities the bitterest opposition comes to be found. This is specially roused by the reception of the Gentiles on equal terms with Jews, by which, of course, these forfeit the exclusive privileges they have really so little valued. But this does not fall to be considered yet.

1. A man, lame from his birth, was accustomed to be carried and laid down at the temple gate which was called Beautiful, to solicit alms from those who went into the temple. He cannot but remind us of the similarly impotent man at the pool of Bethesda upon whom the Lord Himself works a like miracle of healing; and as in that case, we cannot but see here the condition of the nation, impotent at a door which impotence could not enter. The dwelling place of God, however nigh, and however beautiful the approach to it might be, was powerless for blessing, and indeed now vacant, -a seemly formalism only. They praised the gate indeed by which none really entered, great as might be the throng of worshipers, into the presence of God. The beggarly, maimed condition, for those who had eyes to see, characterized all who sought that way of approach. It is in the consciousness of such a state that the power of the Name of Jesus makes itself known. At the ninth hour, being the third hour of prayer, the hour of the evening sacrifice, -the time when the answer to Daniel was vouchsafed, God manifests Himself in answer to that Name by Peter, who with John is going up still among those of whom they are not. Poor in that world in which his Lord had become poor, he has in the One despised by Israel as the Nazarene the secret of a power still available to them, if like the beggar they will but ask an alms. First lifted, he then leaps up and stands, and now enters into the temple a true worshiper. How simple and natural a picture of such an one, to whom, released from his life-bondage, every movement is a new joy, a, leap of the heart to God. The people recognize with amazement this transformation from impotence to exuberant life, and seeing the man holding Peter and John, run to them in the porch called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. Sad reminder of that ruin, from which they would fain believe they have emerged! well will it be if they let this preach to them their need of a Saviour, while they listen to the assurance that He indeed is come.
2. But this involves the story of their sin, which is charged home upon them. They need not look so earnestly on them, (the apostles say,) as if by power of their own, or by reason of their great piety, they had made the man to walk. No, it was the God of their fathers, -of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, from whom they had wandered so far as to be unconscious of His doings, who had acted for the glory of His Servant Jesus whom they had delivered up and even forced His condemnation at the hands of the Gentile governor, when he had given judgment in His favor. They had chosen instead of the Author of life, a murderer! but God had raised Him from the dead; and His Name, through faith in it, had wrought this miracle.
3. Hopeless indeed might their condition seem who had killed the Author of life! That which was their fundamental need they had put from them in a manner seeming to forbid all hope. As the Servant of God, He had come to minister to them, and they had struck down the ministering Hand. The Gentile would have saved whom the Jew put to death: Him whom they knew as the Holy and Righteous, and from whom mercy flowed out still, as it had flowed out in His life. But the City of Refuge stood open still, as now divine grace assured them. As at the cross He had prayed for them as ignorantly doing what yet they had so heartily done, so now the apostle grounds still upon their ignorance, as the only possible argument in their behalf, an offer once again of mercy. God too had overruled for the accomplishment of His determinate purposes of good this wickedness itself Messiah needs must suffer; and this suffering is of grace on His part. Grace then can manifest itself by its means. Did they repent now, nationally, and turn to God, not only would their sins be blotted out, but the presence of Jehovah would be again manifested in their midst, the unfailing sign of the Spirit’s renewing influence, and He would send once more their appointed Messiah, -Jesus. Not till His return from heaven would come the long expected blessing for the earth, the time to which all prophets have ever been looking forward, -times of restoration physical as well as spiritual.

These cannot be, then, while Israel is still in unbelief; and the long season that has elapsed since the offer made to them by the apostle here has been but a time of suspension of the earthly promises. God has, however, in the meanwhile been revealing and carrying into effect other purposes, and of fuller, higher blessing, -of grace therefore more wondrous, the unfolding of which we shall see gradually beginning, as soon as it is clear that Israel as a nation is still going to reject the grace yet being extended towards her, with the full testimony of the Spirit also, to make it good. In what is here before us, the trial is now upon her, and our eyes are directed to the result of this. The apostle goes on to show the emphatic witness of Moses himself to Christ. A Prophet like to himself he had declared that Jehovah would raise up to them: One whose authority he strongly affirms; not a mere expounder of what had been spoken before, but the Originator of a new dispensation, as was Moses, and necessarily, therefore, in advance of that which he had inaugurated. In the passage in Deuteronomy from which Peter quotes, it is after the inability of the people to draw nigh to God has been demonstrated, and the Lord has acquiesced in their own statement of it, -“They have well said that which they have spoken,” -that He declares that He will raise up to them a new Prophet. Had Moses sufficed, there would not have needed to be another; but the Law must necessarily fail to bring nigh to God. “There shall no man see Me and live” had been His word to the lawgiver himself; and the veil before the holiest bore witness to it throughout the dispensation. But in this failure all fails for man’s blessing; and on this account, as the apostle tells us. God finds fault with the law.

There must be, then, another Prophet and a different message. If He be heard, then there opens for the recipient of it that otherwise inaccessible way to God; while, if He be not heard, there is indeed no remedy: “every soul that shall not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.” Thus has Moses spoken of One greater than himself. Thank God, though Israel as a nation rejected Him, as we know, in the days to which we are now looking back, yet “Him shall ye hear” is declared in her favor with regard to days to come. The blessing has been long delayed; but in the meanwhile the gospel has risen up above these human barriers to only a more wondrous height, to overflow to the nations with a fuller blessing. But thus then had Moses spoken; and from Samuel, through a succession of witnesses raised up, the same things had been constantly uttered. The apostle urges them now upon His hearers, as the legitimate heirs, the sons of the prophets, and of the wide-reaching covenant of promise given before the Law, and not crippled by its ineffectiveness. In Abraham’s Seed all the families of the earth would indeed find the blessing. To them, therefore, had Jesus come first of all, to bring it to them, in turning them every one from the iniquities which now were the true hindrance. 4. A sinister interruption here takes place, -the first note of warning from the heads of the people. While the lower classes listened, the religious leaders felt the preaching in the Name of Jesus to be a direct attack upon themselves. The most forward now and henceforth were the Sadducees, with whom the resurrection of the Saviour was the overthrow of their nihilistic creed. How happy might they have been to have their dread negations penetrated by this glorious light from heaven! but, in fact, the more complete the proof of the truth of the gospel, the more they were stirred up against it. Had it been less complete, they would undoubtedly have acted in a milder fashion; but when argument is made impossible, the will that lurks in it stands out from under the cover with the more stubborn energy to win the already decided battle.

Of all men, the hopeless Sadducee should have been the most ready for the gospel; but in reality he was more indifferent than hopeless; his creed was positive in the present rather than negative as to the future; a fair world balanced in his mind the dimness of heaven. Thus he might in any wise not have troubled himself about the enthusiasm of the disciples, had not the miracles brought God too near and preached too alarmingly to the conscience. That should have broken him down before God, but that here the fanaticism of the rebellious spirit was aroused to get rid of the truth with the witness to the truth. But the truth not only abides, but sustains the witness also which it has called forth. The apostles are imprisoned; but the number of the converts rises to five thousand men. It seems as if the narrator were thinking, in this manner of statement, of the camp and battle-field. The morrow comes, and with it the whole council is gathered together. They who have slain the Master now face the disciples, to find them very unlike the timid men they had been. Now it was not they that spoke, but, as it had been promised, the Spirit of their Father that spoke in them. The foremost now in the confession of Christ was he who had, in the very recent past, denied Him; and with none of them was there any hesitation or tremor of soul. They were “in nothing terrified by their adversaries,” which the apostle speaks of afterwards to the Philippians in like case as “to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God” (Philippians 1:28). Were they not afraid to put their idle question, when the “power” which had wrought was manifest and before their eyes, and manifestly divine? And did they not tremble to hear -so attested -the Name of Him whom they had slain? Had they heard of Peter’s old denial? and did they dream that even then he might repeat it? Vain hope indeed, if it was theirs! The “Spirit of glory and of God” was filling Peter now; and they had to hear their guilt charged home upon them, and Jesus Christ the Nazarene declared, as His own lips had once intimated, the “Stone” rejected by the builders, as prophecy had forewarned would be the case. Yes, the building of living stones upon this Corner-stone was already taking place, as thousands in Jerusalem were now witness; by which their office of builders had plainly passed from them. Nay, more; there was no salvation either in any other; none other name under heaven given among men, whereby they could be saved! They do not, in the presence of their persecutors, as before the people, append to this the promise of Christ’s return. This hard-trodden ground must be plowed up, before such good seed as this could be safely committed to it. But they preach salvation, as to perishing men, Sanhedrists as they might be, and doctors of the Law; they themselves in possession of the only security for life and blessing, which they offer with a conscious certainty which, as we know, the teaching of the scribes had not, but which had always characterized their Master’s teaching. Still, as of old, it causes astonishment; illiterate, home-bred men as they plainly were. And there stands with them their voucher, a crippled beggar restored, with a new gladness greater than for his physical healing! Among themselves, when the accused have been for awhile sent aside, the council admit their perplexity.

An evident sign has been done which they can as little deny as they choose to accept; and the worst of it is that it has laid hold of the people; -for men with their strong faith in the present an argument most difficult to resist; for such faith seeks no martyrdom. Truth also they seek not, these leaders of the people, but that which is convenient and will preserve their valued authority. They decide therefore that they will threaten the disciples, and forbid their speaking any more in the name of Jesus. If they cannot refute, they can yet forbid. They can make wrong by edict what they cannot prove to be wrong by any argument they possess. But they find the men intractable beyond their expectation: men to whom God is the fountain of all authority, and whose consciences are, without fear of results, before Him alone. Their course is fixed, to obey God rather than man; and they dare even to appeal to the consciences of their judges in behalf of such a determination. With the council the fear of men is in proportion to the absence of their fear of Him; and this deters them from going further at the present time. They threaten and let them go. For the wave of popular feeling on account of the miracle that has been done is at present not safely to be resisted. 5. The disciples return to their own company; -to how different an atmosphere! The opposition of the enemy had failed, and was destined to fail; it had only given opportunity to set before the whole council of the people the blessed Name which it was their happiness to make known. It had thus furthered their work, not hindered it; and this was but the type and prophecy of all the future, -“He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He will restrain.” The threatenings only show the restraint actually put upon those whose will for harm could not be doubted, and strengthened in going forward those whom they were intended to intimidate. All this they now report among those greeting them on their return, who answer with an outburst of praise, lifting up their voices to God with one accord, as Sovereign Lord of all that He has created, and who has fulfilled what long He had declared in overruling the conspiracy or Jews and Gentiles against Jehovah and against His Christ. The quotation is from the second psalm, which, according to the common belief among the Jews, they ascribe to David.

With strange and terrible unanimity, indeed, had all the world (Jews and Gentiles together) combined against Him with whom was all the hope of the world. But this is only the proof of the thorough sameness of man everywhere, -not only one blood, as God made them, but of one spirit, such as the Fall has made them. Only divine grace has anywhere brought in a difference, and then by a change so great and sovereign that the Spirit of God speaks of it as “new creation.” Israel’s rejection of her Lord was indeed a perfect witness of how all help that could be given him, short of that, must be unavailing, when the Jew it was who clamored for His crucifixion from the unwilling Gentile. So too it was the Jew who was to hound on the heathen persecution of His followers in the time soon to come. They had accomplished their evil will. There was no resistance. The Light of the world had seemed to be quenched in darkness; but only to rise again in unsetting glory. There had been done just what God’s hand and counsel determined before to be done! What then could His disciples ask, save for boldness to proclaim and follow Christ? He had been more than content through all to be the Servant of that unique and glorious will. They pray only for the stretching out of God’s hand in such a way as to give them power and courage; and that signs and wonders may be done in Christ’s Name, to carry on that blessed service. How certain is the answer, when the Lord and His interests are the burden of the prayer! and there is no reserve of self-seeking to give unsteadiness to the faith that would lay hold of Omnipotence! The assurance of being heard is immediately granted them, the place being shaken in which they were gathered together. It is the answer of the Creator, as appealed to, and who will yet “shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land, and shake all nations,” to bring in Christ (Haggai 2:6-7). But also they are all filled with the Holy Spirit, and speak the word with boldness. Lest we should sigh and say, These are but records of far-off days, let us remember that we are exhorted, and it is part of our responsibility, therefore, to “be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18.) This is no question of gifts lost to the Church, nor even of exceptional blessing. We may make it, alas, exceptional; but that is another thing. It is but, in fact, a question of devotedness: for the Spirit is here to glorify Christ, not to give impossible brightness to lives lived in the circle of our own petty interests; which, indeed, so far as they answer to this character, are not in any true sense our interests; for these are all secured with Christ on high. We are identified with Him as our Representative before God, to have resting upon us the favor in which He dwells; and He is identified with us as His representatives on earth, for a life for Him as thus sent into it. We see then how fully and simply in place is what we have here. The disciples are full of His interests.

How could it be otherwise than that the Witness for Christ on earth should fill them as vessels of testimony for Him? The same argument will always hold good; and the Spirit can never be indifferent to His glory. To suppose any thing else would be to dishonor Him who is come to abide with us forever, and who is yesterday, today, and for ever the same. For us also, every thing else must be shaken, until He is made supreme over all. There follow also, as surely, the fruits in practical life. The innate selfishness of the heart is surmounted by the influx of spiritual blessing which expands while it overflows it. There was no communistic law among these gathered saints; it would have spoiled all, if there had been; it was a unity of heart which allowed none of them to say that what was really his belonged to him. The sale of lands and houses was optional and unsolicited, as we see by the very specification of those who did this. There was therefore no general renunciation of personal title; but a love that knew no holding back from the need of another. It was the instinct of hearts that had found their real possessions in that sphere into which Christ had risen.

The glorious fact of resurrection to which testimony was being given now with power took them of necessity out of the world; and great grace was on them all. The deeper need which could not be thus met found still the means to meet it in the actual sale of possessions on the part of those that had them; so that there were none that lacked: the money being laid at the apostles, feet. It is not necessarily that all sold all they had; but that this was the way in which the need was met: the history following, and which grows out of this, seems to make this plain.