彼得醫治瘸腿的乞丐

一天,在下午三點禱告的時間,彼得和約翰去聖殿。 有一個生來瘸腿的人天天被人抬到聖殿美門的外面,向進殿的人乞討。 他看見彼得和約翰要進殿,就求他們施捨。 二人定睛看他,彼得說:「看著我們!」 那人就緊盯著他們,期盼能有所收穫。

彼得說:「金子、銀子我都沒有,但是我把我有的給你。我奉拿撒勒人耶穌基督的名,命令你起來行走!」

彼得拉著他的右手扶他起來,那人的腳和踝骨立刻變得強健有力。 他跳了起來,站穩後開始行走,跟著彼得和約翰進入聖殿,走著跳著讚美上帝。 大家看見他一邊走一邊讚美上帝, 10 認出他就是那個在美門外面的乞丐,都為發生在他身上的事而感到驚奇、詫異。 11 那乞丐緊緊拉著彼得和約翰的手走到所羅門廊,眾人都跑過來,嘖嘖稱奇。

彼得傳揚基督

12 彼得看見這情形,就對大家說:「以色列人啊,何必驚奇呢?為什麼一直盯著我們呢?你們以為我們是憑自己的能力和虔誠叫這人行走嗎? 13 亞伯拉罕、以撒、雅各的上帝,就是我們祖先的上帝,已經使祂的僕人耶穌得了榮耀。你們把耶穌交給彼拉多,儘管彼拉多想釋放祂,你們卻在彼拉多面前棄絕祂! 14 你們棄絕了那聖潔公義者,竟然要求彼拉多釋放一個兇手。 15 你們殺了生命之主,上帝卻使祂從死裡復活了。我們都是這事的見證人。 16 你們認識的這個乞丐因為相信耶穌的名,得到了醫治。你們都看見了,他能痊癒是因為他信耶穌。

17 「弟兄們,我知道你們的所作所為是出於無知,你們的官長也是一樣。 18 但是上帝早已藉眾先知預言基督要受害,這事果然應驗了。 19 所以你們要悔改,歸向上帝,祂將除去你們一切的罪惡, 20 賜給你們煥然一新的日子,也將差遣祂預先為你們選立的基督耶穌降臨。 21 基督必須留在天上,直到萬物更新的時候,這是上帝自古以來藉聖先知的口說的。 22 摩西曾經說,『主——你們的上帝將要在你們中間興起一位像我一樣的先知。你們要留心聽祂的話, 23 凡不聽的,必將他從民中剷除。』

24 「從撒母耳到後來的所有先知都宣告過這些日子。 25 你們是先知的子孫,也承受了上帝和你們祖先所立的約。上帝曾對亞伯拉罕說,『天下萬族必因你的後裔而蒙福。』 26 上帝興起祂的僕人,首先差遣祂到你們中間賜福給你們,使你們脫離罪惡。」

More than he bargained for

One day, Peter and John were going up to the Temple at three o’clock in the afternoon, the time for prayer. There was a man being carried in who had been lame since birth. People used to bring him every day to the Temple gate called “Beautiful,” so that he could ask for alms from folk on their way in to the Temple. When he saw Peter and John going in to the Temple, he asked them to give him some money. Peter, with John, looked hard at him.

“Look at us,” he said.

The man stared at them, expecting to get something from them.

“I haven’t got any silver or gold,” Peter said, “but I’ll give you what I have got. In the name of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk!”

He grabbed the man by his right hand and lifted him up. At once his feet and ankles became strong, and he leaped to his feet and began to walk. He went in with them into the Temple, walking and jumping up and down and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and they recognized him as the man who had been sitting begging for alms by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. They were filled with amazement and astonishment at what had happened to him.

An explanation is called for

11 All the people ran together in astonishment towards Peter and John, and the man who was clinging onto them. They were in the part of the Temple known as Solomon’s Porch. 12 Peter saw them all and began to speak.

“Fellow Israelites,” he said, “why are you amazed at this? Why are you staring at us as though it was our own power or piety that made this man walk? 13 ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob—the God of our ancestors’—he has glorified his child Jesus, the one you handed over and denied in the presence of Pilate, although he had decided to let him go. 14 But you denied the Holy One, the Just One, and requested instead to have a murderer given to you; 15 and so you killed the Prince of Life. But God raised him from the dead, and we are witnesses to the fact. 16 And it is his name, working through faith in his name, that has given strength to this man, whom you see and know. It is faith which comes through him that has given him this new complete wholeness in front of all of you.”

Restoration and refreshment

17 “Now, my dear family,” Peter continued, “I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did. 18 But this is how God has fulfilled what he promised through the mouth of all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. 19 So now repent, and turn back, so that your sins may be blotted out, 20 so that times of refreshment may come from the presence of the Lord, and so that he will send you Jesus, the one he chose and appointed to be his Messiah. 21 He must be received in heaven, you see, until the time which God spoke about through the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient days, the time when God will restore all things. 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, one from among your own brothers; whatever he says to you, you must pay attention to him. 23 And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be cut off from the people.’ 24 All the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors, told us about these days too. 25 You are the children of the prophets, the children of the covenant which God established with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant he sent him to you first, to bless you by turning each of you away from your wicked deeds.”