Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.
Now to fully understand what is happening here, we first need to understand how Jewish people worshipped in the first century. In the Jewish sacrificial system, there were two times every day that sacrifices were made to God for the sins of the people, one early in the morning and one in the in the late afternoon at 3 p.m. These sacrifices would be accompanied by a prayer service. Jewish people would travel to Jerusalem and then climb up one of several set of stairs that would lead them through a gate and onto the temple mount. Once on the temple mount, Peter and John would pass through what was called the court of the gentiles. You see, only Jewish people were allowed to enter the temple. Once in the temple, Peter and John would travel through the court of the women to the court of Israel, in order to watch the sacrifice and participate in the prayer service. Luke tells us that Peter and John entered into the temple by way of the beautiful gate, which most likely referred to what was called the Nicanor Gate. This gate was one of the most popular entrances to the temple mount, as the gate was lavishly designed and made with bronze.
And because this was the most popular entrances to the temple, those who were poor and in need would often gather there in order to beg for money. Luke explains that a man who was lame from his mother’s womb was at the entrance. Now this would have been a man who had never walked and had no way to earn a living. This was a man that was totally dependent on the generosity of other for his survival. So every day, this man would be carried to this gate and left there to spend his day attempting to earn his living by begging. And the 3 p.m. service was prime time for this man; the 3 p.m. service would be his best chance to have his needs met.
Now put yourself in the shoes of this man. You have never walked; you never will walk; and your life consists of begging for money. Every day consisted with you being stared at, or ignored, as you asked for money. How would you feel? And it is in this context that this man sees Peter and John approaching the gate to enter into the temple. Luke then records what happens next:
When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, "Look at us!" And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.
As this lame beggar sees Peter and John, he begins his best sales pitch in order to receive some money to meet his needs. Something about Peter and John caught the attention of this beggar. And something about this beggar also attracted the attention of Peter and John, who stopped walking towards the temple and instead walked up to this beggar and demanded that the beggar pay attention to them. The beggar seeing an opportunity to have his needs met, focused his attention of Peter and John, anticipating a donation. But Peter and John respond in a way that this beggar did not expect, as we see in verse 6:
But Peter said, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you:
To which the beggar probably thought “great; what are you gonna give me? Advice? I get plenty of advice? The name of a doctor? I mean, what are you going to give me that is going to help me?” The beggar then hears the following:
In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene-- walk!"
Now place yourself in the shoes of this beggar. How would you respond? You have never walked before. Even if you thought it was possible, how are you going to walk? And are you going to believe this guy? Peter, however, does not wait for a response:
And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.
This morning, can you imagine what that must have felt like? Imagine being someone that has never walked and then this guy who you have never met tells you to walk and then grabs you and lifts you to your feet. And you feel yourself spring to your feet. You then take that first tentative step. Then a second. Then you start walking; then running, then jumping up and down. You don’t care that you are right outside of church and that people are staring at you; you can walk. And you know that this is not something that any man has done, you know that God has entered into your story in a miraculous way. Can you imagine how you would respond? Luke tells us that the beggar responded by doing something that he had never done before, he walked himself into the temple with Peter and John jumping for joy and worshipping God.
Now imagine being a person that was in the temple courts that afternoon. Imagine the scene as you watched this man who had never walked get up and walk, run, leap and rejoice all the way into the temple. For years you had seen this man sitting outside the entrance to the temple begging for money. And now he is in the temple praising God with two guys who picked him up off of the ground and told him to walk. What would you be thinking? How would you respond?
Tomorrow, we will discover how the crowd responded and look at the decision that Peter and John were faced with....
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