Day 16—Acts 3:11-4:4

¹¹ While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹² When Peter saw this, he said to them: “People of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. ¹⁴ You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. ¹⁵ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. ¹⁶ By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

¹⁷ “Now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. ¹⁸ But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer. ¹⁹ Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, ²⁰ and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. ²¹ Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. ²² For Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. ²³ Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.’

²⁴ “Indeed, beginning with Samuel, all the prophets who have spoken have foretold these days. ²⁵ And you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers. He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all peoples on earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

^4:1 The priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to Peter and John while they were speaking to the people. ² They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people, proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. ³ They seized Peter and John, and because it was evening, they put them in jail until the next day. ⁴ But many who heard the message believed; so the number of men who believed grew to about five thousand.

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The disciples of Jesus (numbering over three thousand) have been meeting together and worshipping daily in the temple courts, and the apostles were performing wonders and miraculous signs in the presence of everyone. It was an exciting and convicting time for the disciples of Jesus as they experienced the amazing works of God’s Holy Spirit.

Surely the Jews became more and more curious everyday about what was going on among the disciples of Jesus. We do know many Jews were repenting and giving their lives to Jesus on a daily basis (Acts 2:47), so curiosity led to learning about Jesus, which then led to salvation for many.

In our text today many more Jews who lived during the ministry of Jesus and then rejected and crucified him are now bluntly challenged again by Peter. Peter has just healed a man who had been crippled from birth, which was particularly impressive to the Jews because they all recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the temple gate. The Jews were amazed and “filled with wonder” because of this miracle and in our text Peter takes advantage of the opportunity to share more about Jesus.

He hits the Jews hard with some pretty serious accusations:

• “You handed him over to be killed”
• “You disowned him before Pilate”
• “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you.”
• “You killed the author of life”

Ouch! Such sharp accusations thrown straight at the Jews!

It says a lot to me when I read how Peter and John don’t take any credit for the miracle, but give all the credit to Jesus. They are fully servants of Jesus, merely tools for him to do his work through the Holy Spirit. They declare their humble attitudes when they say that the miracle was only possible in Jesus’ name and by faith that comes through him. To the disciples, all wonders and miraculous signs point to Jesus.

There it is again—Jesus’ name. What is so amazing about the name of Jesus? Why is having “faith in his name” so important?

I am coming to realize that claiming the name of Jesus—especially when all of this amazing miraculous stuff was going on—carried a lot of weight, responsibility, and expectations. When a Jewish person was baptized “in the name of Jesus” that was a HUGE step to make. Claiming the name of Jesus meant claiming all of his teachings, a spot among his growing group of disciples, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God. What they would have been saying through their baptism, to everyone witnessing their baptism, was basically, “I believe Jesus was/is the anticipated Messiah of God and will represent him everywhere I go from now on. I will live for him!” It wasn’t that they would have rejected God through baptism, but they would have accepted the truth about Jesus as God’s son. The name of Jesus was theoretically branded on their foreheads and everywhere they went among the Jews they were moving targets of ridicule and rejection from other Jews who didn’t accept the truth about Jesus. Standing in their new faith in Jesus would have made these new converts look like fools in the eyes of the Jews. That is major dedication to Jesus!

Peter calls for the Jews present to “repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.” After all of the pointed accusations Peter made to the Jews, he calls them to turn to the truth of God in Jesus and listen to what he says by using a quote from Moses. Using this quote he says possibly one of the most abrasive and offensive things a Jew could hear: “Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.”

Peter drew a new line and challenged them to cross it. If they didn’t listen to the truth of Jesus—God’s Messiah—and give their lives to him they would be cut from God’s people. Since Jews found their entire identity in their faith, being cut off from God’s people would mean in the end loosing or at least changing their identity. Peter understands this because he’s already done what he’s asking them to do and has settled nicely into his new identity in Jesus Christ.

Amazingly, even though Peter and John were seized and placed in jail because of their abrasive and hard-to-swallow message, many more Jews believed in Jesus and gave their lives to him. I wonder if the water was cold in the river that day when 1,500 plus people were baptized in the name of Jesus!

Now, because of these spectacular and challenging events, the number of disciples grew to about five thousand. The message of salvation was spreading and it was exciting!