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healed when to all appearances they are as sick as ever. This was no Christian Science healing, but an instant, genuine and radical change from absolute inability to walk to ability to walk and leap continuously, on the part o f one whom everybody knew to have been absolutely lame. The people who witnessed the change were filled with wonder and amazement and many were con verted (ch. 4 :4 ). The miracle simply served to get a hearing for the Gospel. . vs. 11, 12. “And as he beheld Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this man?, or why fasten ye your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to walk?" The healed man held fast on to Peter and John. He was afraid they might get away. He had not yet learned to lean directly on Jesus and not on the instrument that the Lord Jesus uses. The miracle drew a great crowd (cf. ch. 2 : 6 ). Peter immediately turned attention away from himself to his Lord. How unlike many modern claimants to healing pow er! Peter was not at all puffed up by the mir acle that had been wrought through his instrumentality, nor did he fancy for a moment that it was due to any peculiar power or godliness o f his own (cf. ch. 14:11, 15; Gen. 40:8; 2 Cor. 3 :5 ; contrast Num. 20:10). He wished them, to get their eyes upon the Lord, not upon him. With an almost distressed earnestness he cries, “Why fasten ye your eyes on us?” In the original there is great emphasis on the “us.” vs. 13-15. “ The God o f Abraham, and o f Isaac, and of Jacob, the God o f our fathers, hath glorified His Servant Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence o f Pilate, when he had deter m ined to release him. ' But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince o f life; whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.” Peter used that name o f God which would
the name o f Jesus Christ o f Nazareth, he himself took hint, by the hand and raised him up. Peter had learned that from observing Jesus (Mark 1:31)', and we do well to learn it too f i t is not enough to tell men what to do, there is great need that we stretch out a helping hand and help them to do the thing they ought to do. It is to be noticed that Luke is very spe cific in his description o f the cure, he goes into the matter o f the “ feet and ankle- bones.” This was because Luke was a phy sician (Col. 4:14), and it is one o f the inci dental proofs that this book really is by Luke. This is one o f many places where there are undesigned coincidences, in the Scriptures, one part unintentionally con firming another part. v. 8 . “And leaping up, he stood, and began to walk (or, was walking ) ; and he entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” It was the gladdest moment o f the man’s life. He leaped up, stood a moment in wonder, began to walk, then began to leap and praise God. Is it any wonder? How must one feel,who never has walked and has attained to manhood without being able to stand on his feet, and then suddenly is given the power to walk and leap? How wonderfully graphic and natural, and self- evidently true the whole story is. The man used his new-found strength in a good way; he walked to a good place— God’s own house. He could not do much even yet, but there was one thing he could do and did do, he praised God. A fter all, that is about the best thing any one can do. vs. 9, 10. “And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they took knowledge of him, that it (rather, this ) 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." There was no guesswork about this miracle, the man was well-known to all the observers, and the reality o f the cure was evident and unmis takable. It was utterly different from the -case o f many today who loudly and per sistently proclaim that they have been
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