In the name of Jesus...Get up and walk.

Acts 3 New King James Version (NKJV)

A Lame Man Healed

3 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ^[a]ask alms from those who entered the temple; ³ who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. ⁴ And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. ⁸ So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

In our Bible study, a member of the class asked an interesting question.  He wondered if Jesus had walked past this lame man on His way to the temple before His crucifixion.  We know from the scriptures that the blind and lame came to the temple and were healed by Jesus.  Obviously, this man was not one of them.  It  was an interesting question and I cannot sit here today and say that we discovered the answer, but reading God's word led us to a place where His word made sense to us.

Matthew tells us in his gospel, that Jesus healed those who came to Him in faith.  We recall that Jesus often told those He healed that their faith had made them well.  Perhaps the lame man mentioned in Acts, did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God and did not believe Jesus received the power to heal from God before His crucifixion..  Perhaps he was one of the Jews who said, "Crucify Him!"  But here in Acts, by the name of Jesus, he received a healing from Peter. What changed?

I believe that this healing event reveals the importance and the impact of Jesus' resurrection.  We learn that His resurrection was the talk of Jerusalem from the two men on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-35). We saw on the day of Pentecost, that the disciples of Jesus, were recognized in a new light, and the name of Jesus was a source of power and impact.  I believe that this lame man, upon hearing the name of Jesus, knew Jesus in a new way as Peter and John offered to heal him.  With the Good News of the Savior's resurrection, we are healed from our spiritual blindness and invited to walk eternally in the Love of God.