The man sat on the ground, his body propped up against the wall, dejectedly surveying the crowds passing and re-passing on their way into and out of the Temple. Now in his early forties, he had lain there every day for as long as he could remember, mutely supplicating passers-by for their charity. He had never walked and he had never worked. All he knew of the world was the little strip of ground between his hovel-home in Jerusalem and this wide pavement in the Gate Beautiful at the eastern approach to the Temple where he habitually solicited alms wherewith to sustain himself in his infirmity. His friends brought him there in the morning and left him, and in the evening they came again to take him home. And that was his life, all of it.

Two men approached, coming into the Temple. He did not know them. They were not regular worshippers. Only in recent weeks had he seen them at all, and then too far away in the crowd to accost them. Now they were here again, and this time on a path that would bring them within a few feet of his recumbent body. His eyes brightened a little and he lifted his head. "Alms, for the love of God; alms" he croaked, voice dry and hard by reason of the constant repetition of his plea.

The men stopped and looked down at him. Hope surged into his eyes and his lean frame quivered in anticipation as he tremblingly extended a skinny hand. But as one of them began to speak his expectations were cruelly dashed. "I have no silver and gold" said Peter; as the import of the words sank in, the crippled man subsided back to the flagstones, bitter disappointment showing on his face. "But what I have I give you" the voice went on, and he looked up again, a little perplexed, a little hesitant, vaguely wondering if there was some kind of a gift, perhaps of food or clothing, which he was about to receive. He sensed the kindliness and compassion in Peter's voice and the understanding sympathy of his companion but he was totally unprepared for the command that came upon him like a thunder-clap: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth stand up and walk".

He had never walked. He had never stood upon his feet. From his birth he had always been carried, taken up and put down like a package of goods. He had seen other people walking and going about their business but it had never entered his head that he himself would ever do any such thing. He had been made as he was by the will of God, and only God could change his state. He looked up into the burning eyes of Peter and suddenly he remembered what he had been told about this same Jesus, how He had healed the handicapped man at the Pool of Bethesda and the blind man at the Pool of Siloam. He had even, they said, raised the dead. He had hoped, when he heard these wonderful stories, that Jesus might come his way one day and he could ask for healing; but Jesus had never come and now, so they said, He had been crucified by the priests and there was no more any hope of healing. And then, his own eyes still held by that compelling gaze, he realised the truth. Jesus still lives, Jesus can save; a swift accession of faith suffused his whole being and he grasped the proffered hand held out towards him and in a moment was standing upon his feet. He had never stood; now he was standing. He took two tentative steps forward. He had never walked; now he was walking. In a sudden outburst of joy he leaped into the air, he who had never leaped, and in a loud voice began to praise God for the wonderful thing that had happened to him. Joining the throng that was pressing forward into the Temple, he went along with Peter and John, voicing his praises in the ears of all the people as he went.

Of course it created a sensation. The man had become so familiar a figure throughout the years and his disability so obviously incurable that people came running from all sides to see and to question. Peter and John found themselves in the middle of a wondering and excited crowd with no chance of escape, while the healed man was clinging tightly to them and declaiming to the onlookers the details of his miraculous cure.

This was Peter's opportunity. The people reacted to this miracle just as they had reacted to Jesus' miracles - they gave praise to God and looked with awe upon the human agent as a special messenger from God akin to the prophets of old. Peter and John must be special favourites with God to be entrusted with so great a power. And Peter straightway disabused their minds of that misapprehension. We have no supernatural powers of our own, he told them; we are not extraordinarily holy men. Thus having disavowed any special merit of his own in this thing, he began in a masterly fashion to direct their minds to the true source of the miracle and what it portended for them and theirs. He did not say straight away that it was done by the power of the resurrected Christ; he wanted to prepare their minds so that they might properly appreciate the magnitude of that truth. First, the familiar formula, the reverent expression which meant so much to every Israelite and could be depended on always to command their attention. "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers...". Here was the source, to Jew and afterwards to Christian, from which all things come and in which all things are maintained. "…has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected". This was a gentle approach to the heart of the matter. The word "glorified" (doxazo) has nothing to do with the resurrection itself: it denotes to magnify, extol, praise, and what Peter is saying here is that God had publicly approved and honoured Jesus of Nazareth during His earthly life but despite that the people had delivered Him up to death. Then came the deeper accusation and the deeper truth. "You rejected the Holy and Righteous One.., and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses." There was to be no mitigation of their responsibility; they, as a nation, were guilty and solely guilty. Pilate he practically exonerates; "..he had decided to release him." and the guilt of the condemnation he places fairly and squarely upon Israel. But their intent was frustrated. God had raised Him from the dead; we know, because we have seen him! We are witnesses! For the second time Peter staked his all upon the reality of his Lord's resurrection; once again he manifested the certainty of an eyewitness. Now he used the undisputed fact of this miracle that they had all just witnessed as further and incontrovertible evidence in all their eyes; "And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong... has given him perfect health in the presence of all of you." (Acts 3. 16 NRSV). The disciples believed in the Resurrection because they had seen Jesus in person. That was not given to other men. The evidence given to the man in the street was the continuation of the works of healing which Jesus had performed while in this life. The power of Jesus to restore to health and life those who had faith in Him reached them even from beyond the grave.

The crowd was silent, and for a very good reason. They had nothing to say. The evidence could not be gainsaid. Peter, following up his advantage, adopted a more conciliatory tone. "And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers." God had foreseen that men would react in this way when Christ should come to them and recorded His foreknowledge in the words of the prophets. He would make use of this hardness of man's heart in the furtherance of His great purpose and at the end all would be well. But in the meantime there was a part for man to play; more immediately and importantly, for the men of Israel to play. "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord". These "times of refreshing" are literally seasons of cooling, of refrigeration, of mitigation of heat. In using this word Peter indicated that those who did thus repent and come into Christ thereby found relief from the burdens of the Mosaic Law and the stress of the times in which they lived. Now they entered into a new life in which all their burdens were brought to the Lord and He undertook their future welfare. "Come to me, all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" was the invitation when Jesus was with them; it was no less open to them now that He was gone. It came now from before the Divine presence, where Christ was "sitting on the right hand of God".

But Peter hastened on. There were even greater things he must say. It was not sufficient that he must witness to the resurrection of Christ and the continuing call to believe on Him. He must tell them of the ultimate outcome of that resurrection, of the return of that same Jesus to this earth and to this people where He had been rejected. This time He would come in the glory and majesty of His Divine kingship and reign over all the world for the purpose of eliminating all evil and completing mankind's preparation for its ordained destiny. Jesus had already said He would return. The angels at the site of the Ascension reiterated that promise. Now Peter testifies to his belief and expectation of the same and he connects it with the original promise of God to Abraham that "in your descendants all families of the earth shall be blessed". He went on "That he may send the Christ who has been appointed for you, even Jesus. He must remain in the heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets." 'Times of restitution'; the word means "restoration" but restoration of what? There are many things buried in the past history of humanity that it would not be good to restore. So the AV should read "times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets". Many good and glorious things had been spoken by the prophets. Israel's own land is to be restored to her; the Lord is to dwell in the midst of her and never depart again. Life, rich, vital, indwelling life, is to be restored to all men. All that has been lost by the influence and power of sin will be restored. The glory and beauty of the fertile earth, spoiled and polluted and ruined by man, will be restored. The dead will be restored from the grave. Eden shall bloom again and this time there will be no Tempter, no Evil One. These "times of restitution" of which Peter spoke on this occasion are in fact the wide sweeps of the Millennium, the Messianic era of Christ's presence in the earth, the time when God is said to dwell with man. "There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away". All these things were promised by the Hebrew prophets and all these things will be restored to man.

At this point Peter's eloquence was rudely interrupted. Someone had told the priests about these two itinerant evangelists preaching the resurrection of Jesus within the very confines of the Temple itself and they came out in force to stop it. With them came the 'captain of the Temple', the commander of the Temple police, a body of muscular Levites whose duty it was to deal with troublemakers within the sacred precincts. Without further ado Peter and John were apprehended and locked up for the night, while arrangements were made for a special meeting of the Sanhedrin in the morning to examine them and mete out punishment.

The last time Peter had set eyes upon Annas and Caiaphas, who between them ruled the Sanhedrin, had been at the trial of Jesus not much more than two months before. Then, Peter who had been a frightened man and in fear of his own life had denied his Lord. Now, himself facing that same assemblage of hostile judges, and hearing their angry demand to say by what power he had done this thing, he answered boldly in full disregard of their enmity. There is a wonderful contrast between his respective attitudes on these two occasions. Only the full assurance that his Lord had indeed survived death and now had all power in heaven and earth could have engendered this fortitude.

"Rulers of the people and elders" was his reply "know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead that this man stands before you healed."(NIV)

This was throwing the gauntlet back at them with a vengeance. They had crucified Christ; God had raised Him from the dead, and now He possessed and wielded a power that they could neither refute nor resist. "When they saw the man who had been cured standing beside them, they had nothing to say.." (REB). Evidently that worthy also had suffered arrest and imprisonment for the night with the two apostles. The Sanhedrin was thrown into confusion. They had thought that with the death of Jesus they had put an end to this incipient heresy and this threat to their own positions and authority; now they found it blossoming forth even more strongly than before. They had congratulated themselves on the cessation of the miraculous works of healing and other wonderful acts that characterized Jesus' ministry and now they found that He was continuing these things from beyond the grave where they could not get at Him. No wonder they went into secret session. They had to admit the truth to themselves although they would not do so publicly. "What are we going to do with these men? they asked, Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle and we cannot deny it?." If the Sanhedrin had not believed in the resurrection of Jesus and His Divine power before, they believed in it now. But such is the blinding effect of pride and self-interest that they still considered they could defy this new power which was challenging their authority. Even though the power was from heaven, it must still be exerted through men, and men moreover who must claim and invoke the Name of Christ. So they recalled the apostles and commanded them, with threats, neither to speak nor teach in the name of Jesus. The apostles' compliance with that instruction would ensure that there would be no more miracles.

Peter and John both flatly refused. "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking what we have seen and heard". Unmoved by their judges' threats, they defied them to do their worst.

At the trial of Jesus, the priests had dominated the situation and Pilate was the weak one who gave way to them. Now the position was reversed; the Sanhedrin, apprehensive and indecisive, had lost the initiative and the apostles were in control. Despite their threats, there was nothing the judges could do beyond reiterating warnings of severe punishment which were known, even to themselves, to be but empty words, and to turn the apostles loose to continue their work.

This was the first of many occasions in the history of this Age when the Lion and the Lamb met in open conflict, and the Lamb emerged the victor. There was to be many a fight and many a casualty in coming days. But the existence of the Christian Church and its ultimate triumph was ensured on that day when two resolute disciples faced a tribunal of seventy outwardly enraged but inwardly very frightened men and made that historic declaration.

(To be continued). AOH