Acts 3:2-7

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time for prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon.  And a man lame from birth was being carried up, who was placed at the temple gate called “the Beautiful Gate” every day so he could beg for money from those going into the temple courts.  When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple courts, he asked them for money.  Peter looked directly at him (as did John) and said, “Look at us!”  So the lame man paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.  But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, stand up and walk!”  Then Peter took hold of him by the right hand and raised him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.

Just as every day before this, the man who has been lame since birth is carried up to the temple gate. Begging is how he survives, and my guess is that he has very little, if any hope. On this day though, instead of receiving money as assistance, he receives the ability to walk again. His life is forever changed, and it is changed because Peter, obedient to the Spirit of God, freely gives this man what he has been given. Call it a new lease on life, call it a second chance, call it a rebirth, call it healing the lame, or call it a miracle: whatever you label it could not have happened without the power of God working through Peter. The miraculous coming through us is made possible by the One who is able to do the impossible in us and with us. The Pharisees are about to find out that the power of Christ is alive and well.