First Encounter with the Authorities in Israel

Chapter 3

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Walk!^{[a] 1} One day, Peter and John were on their way to the temple for the hour of prayer at three o’clock in the afternoon.^{[b] 2} A man who had been crippled from his birth was carried there every day and laid at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate^[c] so that he could beg for alms from those who entered the temple.

³ When this man saw Peter and John about to enter into the temple, he asked them for alms. ⁴ Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said to him, “Look at us!” ⁵ He looked at them attentively, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”

⁷ Then Peter grasped him by the right hand and helped him to get up. Immediately, his feet and ankles were strengthened. ⁸ He jumped up, stood straight, and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. ⁹ When all the people there saw him walking and praising God, ¹⁰ they recognized him as the man who used to sit and beg for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

¹¹ Peter Speaks to the People.^[d] While he continued to cling to Peter and John, all the people came running in amazement toward them in Solomon’s Portico, as it is called. ¹² When Peter saw the people assembling, he addressed them:

“Men of Israel, why are you so surprised at this? Why do you stare at us, as though we had enabled this man to walk by our own power or holiness? ¹³ The God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant^[e] Jesus whom you handed over and disowned in the presence of Pilate after he had decided to release him. ¹⁴ You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. ¹⁵ The author of life^[f] you put to death, but God raised him from the dead. Of this we are witnesses.

¹⁶ “By faith in his name, this man whom you see here and who is known to you has been made strong. Faith in him has made him completely well in the presence of all of you.

¹⁷ “Now I am aware, brethren, that you acted out of ignorance as did your rulers. ¹⁸ God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the Prophets, revealing that his Christ would suffer. ¹⁹ Repent, therefore, and be converted so that your sins may be wiped away, ²⁰ that a time of refreshment may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, that is, Jesus. ²¹ He must remain in heaven until the time comes for the universal restoration announced by God in ages past through his holy Prophets. ²² For Moses said,

²⁴ “Furthermore, all the Prophets who have spoken, from Samuel onward, predicted these days.

²⁵ “You are the heirs of the Prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each one of you from your wicked ways.”