Acts 3
The Message
3 1-5 One day at three o’clock in the afternoon, Peter and John were on their way into the Temple for prayer meeting. At the same time there was a man crippled from birth being carried up. Every day he was set down at the Temple gate, the one named Beautiful, to beg from those going into the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the Temple, he asked for a handout. Peter, with John at his side, looked him straight in the eye and said, “Look here.” He looked up, expecting to get something from them.
6-8 Peter said, “I don’t have a nickel to my name, but what I do have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” He grabbed him by the right hand and pulled him up. In an instant his feet and ankles became firm. He jumped to his feet and walked.
8-10 The man went into the Temple with them, walking back and forth, dancing and praising God. Everybody there saw him walking around and praising God. They recognized him as the one who sat begging at the Temple’s Gate Beautiful and rubbed their eyes, astonished, scarcely believing what they were seeing.
11 The man threw his arms around Peter and John, ecstatic. All the people ran up to where they were at Solomon’s Porch to see it for themselves.
Turn to Face God
12-16 When Peter saw he had a congregation, he addressed the people:
“Oh, Israelites, why does this take you by such complete surprise, and why stare at us as if our power or piety made him walk? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his Son Jesus. The very One that Pilate called innocent, you repudiated. You repudiated the Holy One, the Just One, and asked for a murderer in his place. You no sooner killed the Author of Life than God raised him from the dead—and we’re the witnesses. Faith in Jesus’ name put this man, whose condition you know so well, on his feet—yes, faith and nothing but faith put this man healed and whole right before your eyes.
17-18 “And now, friends, I know you had no idea what you were doing when you killed Jesus, and neither did your leaders. But God, who through the preaching of all the prophets had said all along that his Messiah would be killed, knew exactly what you were doing and used it to fulfill his plans.
19-23 “Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely, Jesus. For the time being he must remain out of sight in heaven until everything is restored to order again just the way God, through the preaching of his holy prophets of old, said it would be. Moses, for instance, said, ‘Your God will raise up for you a prophet just like me from your family. Listen to every word he speaks to you. Every last living soul who refuses to listen to that prophet will be wiped out from the people.’
24-26 “All the prophets from Samuel on down said the same thing, said most emphatically that these days would come. These prophets, along with the covenant God made with your ancestors, are your family tree. God’s covenant-word to Abraham provides the text: ‘By your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ But you are first in line: God, having raised up his Son, sent him to bless you as you turn, one by one, from your evil ways.”
Acts 3
EasyEnglish Bible
A man walks again!
3 One day, Peter and John went to the temple in Jerusalem. It was three o'clock in the afternoon. This was the time that everyone went there to pray. 2 There was a man who could not walk. He had never been able to walk. Every day, his friends put him at the gate of the temple. It was called the Beautiful Gate. As people were going in through the gate, the man asked them for money. His friends were carrying him there when Peter and John arrived. 3 The man saw Peter and John as they were coming through the gate. So he asked them to give him some money. 4 Peter looked carefully at the man and so did John. Peter said to him, ‘Look at us!’ 5 So the man looked at Peter and John. He thought that they would give him some money.
6 Then Peter said to the man, ‘I do not have any money. But I do have something else that I will give to you. Jesus Christ from Nazareth gave me authority to do this. So now I tell you to walk!’ 7 Peter held the man's right hand and he helped him to stand up. Immediately the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8 The man jumped up and he stood on his feet. Then he began to walk about. He went into the temple with Peter and John. He was walking and jumping and he was praising God. 9 A large crowd of people were there. They saw the man walking. They heard him praising God. 10 ‘Look!’ they said. ‘We know this man. He usually sits at the Beautiful Gate of the temple and he asks people for money. What has happened to him?’ They were all very surprised.
Peter speaks to the crowd in the temple
11 The man was still holding Peter and John as they went into the yard of the temple. All the people were very surprised about what they saw. So they ran to Peter and John at the place called Solomon's porch. 12 Peter saw all the people who had come together. So he said to them, ‘People of Israel, you should not be so surprised about what you have seen. You should not look at us as if we ourselves are powerful. It is not because we obey God that we could cause this man to walk again. 13 It happened because of Jesus, who was the special servant of God. That is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and our other ancestors who lived long ago.[a] God has raised his servant Jesus up to a place of honour.
You helped the rulers to take hold of Jesus. The Roman ruler Pilate had decided to let Jesus go free. But you turned against Jesus. 14 Jesus was God's Holy One who always did what was right. But you did not accept him. You told Pilate to let another man go free instead of Jesus. That man was in prison because he had killed people. 15 But Jesus is the person who leads people to true life. When you refused him, it meant that you killed him. But God made him alive again and raised him up from death. We ourselves saw him alive after he had died and we are telling you about it.
16 It is the power of Jesus that has made this man completely well again. We believe in him. We know that he has authority. You know this man. You saw that he had weak legs. Jesus has caused this man's legs to become strong. You can all see for yourselves what has happened. Yes, he is now well because we havetrusted Jesus and his power.
17 Friends, when you did all this to Jesus, you did not really know what you were doing. Your leaders also did not understand. 18 Jesus was God's Messiah. A long time ago, many of God's prophets spoke about him. They spoke God's message about what would happen to the Messiah. They said that he would suffer. God has now caused these things to happen. 19 So you must stop doing wrong things. Change how you live and turn to God. Then God will forgive you for all the wrong things that you have done. 20 The Lord God will help you. Times will come when he will cause your spirit to be strong. He has already chosen Jesus as the one to help you. He is God's Messiah, and God will send him back to you again. 21 Jesus must stay in heaven until the day that God will cause everything to become new again. Long ago God gave his prophets a message about this, and they told that message to people. 22 For example, Moses said this about the Messiah a long time ago: “The Lord your God will send you a prophet. He will be one of your own people. He will speak God's message as I have done. You must obey everything that he says to you. 23 God will punish anyone who does not obey that prophet. He will no longer be one of God's people and God will destroy him.” ’[b]
24 Peter then said, ‘All of God's prophets spoke about what is happening in these days. Samuel was one of them, and all the prophets who came later also spoke the same message. 25 You are the people who receive that message from God today. The promise that God made to bless our ancestors is the same promise that he makes to you. God said to our ancestor Abraham, “Through your descendants, I will bless all the people on the earth.”[c]
26 God chose Jesus to be his special servant. God sent him to you first. He wants to help you, so that you stop doing bad things. That is how he will bless you.’
Footnotes
- 3:13 We can read about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Bible in Genesis.
- 3:23 We can read what Moses said to the people in Deuteronomy 18:14-20.
- 3:25 We can read about God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:2-3.
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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