3 Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock daily prayer meeting. ² As they approached the Temple, they saw a man lame from birth carried along the street and laid beside the Temple gate—the one called The Beautiful Gate—as was his custom every day. ³ As Peter and John were passing by, he asked them for some money.

⁴ They looked at him intently, and then Peter said, “Look here!”

⁵ The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting a gift.

⁶ But Peter said, “We don’t have any money for you! But I’ll give you something else! I command you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!”

^7-8 Then Peter took the lame man by the hand and pulled him to his feet. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankle bones were healed and strengthened so that he came up with a leap, stood there a moment and began walking! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.

⁹ When the people inside saw him walking and heard him praising God, ¹⁰ and realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at The Beautiful Gate, they were inexpressibly surprised! ¹¹ They all rushed out to Solomon’s Hall, where he was holding tightly to Peter and John! Everyone stood there awed by the wonderful thing that had happened.

¹² Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “Men of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why look at us as though we by our own power and godliness had made this man walk? ¹³ For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and of all our ancestors who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. I refer to the Jesus whom you rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s determination to release him. ¹⁴ You didn’t want him freed—this holy, righteous one. Instead you demanded the release of a murderer. ¹⁵ And you killed the Author of Life; but God brought him back to life again. And John and I are witnesses of this fact, for after you killed him we saw him alive!

¹⁶ “Jesus’ name has healed this man—and you know how lame he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name—faith given us from God—has caused this perfect healing.

¹⁷ “Dear brothers, I realize that what you did to Jesus was done in ignorance; and the same can be said of your leaders. ¹⁸ But God was fulfilling the prophecies that the Messiah must suffer all these things. ¹⁹ Now change your mind and attitude to God and turn to him so he can cleanse away your sins and send you wonderful times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord ²⁰ and send Jesus your Messiah back to you again. ^21-22 For he must remain in heaven until the final recovery of all things from sin, as prophesied from ancient times. Moses, for instance, said long ago, ‘The Lord God will raise up a Prophet among you, who will resemble me!^[a] Listen carefully to everything he tells you. ²³ Anyone who will not listen to him shall be utterly destroyed.’^[b]

²⁴ “Samuel and every prophet since have all spoken about what is going on today. ²⁵ You are the children of those prophets; and you are included in God’s promise to your ancestors to bless the entire world through the Jewish race—that is the promise God gave to Abraham. ²⁶ And as soon as God had brought his servant to life again, he sent him first of all to you men of Israel, to bless you by turning you back from your sins.”