NOTES for Act 3:1-10
1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being 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 ask alms of them that entered into the temple; |
3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. |
4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. |
5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. |
6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: 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 ancle bones received strength. |
8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. |
9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God: |
10 And they knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him. |
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The Gospels are full of stories of healings. And the Book of Acts continues this tradition: immediately after the description of the Savior's Ascension and Pentecost comes the description of a healing performed, true, no longer by Christ Himself, but by the apostles in the name of Christ. Of course, one could explain everything by saying that one of the Synoptic Gospels and the Book of Acts have the same author. But that is only the outer side of the matter. Something else is more important: the essential connection of the Gospel events with those described in the Book of Acts. And first of all, of course, this concerns the promise Jesus gave to the apostles during His earthly ministry, the promise that they too would be able to do on earth everything He Himself did.
But this is not all. The main point is that the history of the Kingdom in the world continues. And this means that Christian history continues. Not the history of certain Christian ecclesiastical institutions, or of what might be called, rather conditionally, Christian civilization, but the history of the Church. The one with a capital C. The one that is a community of people living in the Kingdom. In fact, Christ never created any other Church. What He left on earth was precisely a small community, at first, of inhabitants of the Kingdom. Or, more exactly, of those who were to become inhabitants of the Kingdom after His Resurrection, after Pentecost; those through whom the Kingdom would continue to exist in the world, transfiguring it.
The apostles' healing of the lame man who sat at the entrance to the Temple was precisely a witness that the apostles had become inhabitants of the Kingdom: it was the power of the Kingdom, its breath, that healed the lame man. It accompanied the apostles just as it had accompanied the Savior Himself when He walked on earth. Thus His work on earth continued. And so did the history of salvation.
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