CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 3:11. For the lame man which was healed the best codices read he. The porch (or portico) that is called Solomon’s ran along the eastern wall of the temple on both sides of the gate of Susa, and overlooked the Valley of Jehoshaphat. It had three rows of columns fifty feet high, and two walks thirty feet wide. The columns were each of one stone (white marble), the walks were paved with stones of various colours, and the roofs adorned with sculptures in wood. The porch, which was a survival from the Solomonic temple, was frequently resorted to, especially in winter, as a promenade or public walk (John 10:23; Jos., Ant., XV. xi. 5).
Acts 3:12. At this.—Sc. man rather than thing. Look earnestly.—Fasten your eyes, as in Acts 3:4. For this man read him.
Acts 3:13. Hath glorified.—Better, glorified not by this particular miracle (Meyer, Spence), or by all the mighty works which attested His mission (Hackett), but by His exaltation through death, as in John 12:23; John 17:10 (Alford). His son.—Should be His servant, this being an Old Testament title of Messiah (Isaiah 41:8; Isaiah 42:1-7; Isaiah 49:3-6); and applied as such to Christ by Matthew (Acts 12:18), and outside of canonical scripture by Clem., I. ad Cor. 59:3; Barnabas, vi. 1; Didache, ix.
2. Had determined.—Or decided that it was just (see Luke 23:16; Luke 20-23; John 19:4).
Acts 3:15. Prince.—Author, in the fullest sense (see Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 12:2). Whereof.—Or of whom (compare Acts 2:32; Acts 13:31).
Acts 3:16. Through, or on the ground of, faith.—Not the man’s or the people’s (Olshausen) but the apostles’ (Alford, Spence, Holtzmann, Hackett) faith in His Christ’s name.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 3:11-16
Solomon’s Porch; or, Peter’s Second Sermon.
1. The Secret of the Miracle explained
I. The people’s excitement calmed.—The effect produced upon the healed man was scarcely greater than that wrought upon the multitude who saw him in the Temple. Filled with wonder and amazement at what had taken place, the crowd swarmed round the two apostles, to whom the cured cripple was eagerly clinging in Solomon’s porch as if unwilling to permit them to depart. Taking speech in hand, Peter, with his customary readiness, proceeded to address them with a view to quieting their agitation. Their wonder and amazement he—
1. Admitted as not unnatural. It would have been surprising if they had not marvelled on seeing a forty years’ old cripple restored to perfect health. When in Capernaum a similar miracle had been wrought by Christ (Luke 5:18-26), “amazement took hold on all … and they were filled with fear, saying, We have seen strange things to-day.” So wherever Christ’s religion operates it performs moral miracles, at which men gaze sometimes with incredulity and even with hostility, but always with astonishment (see Acts 17:6).
2. Rebuked as wrongly directed. The multitude imagined that Peter and John had healed the cripple by their own power and in virtue of their own goodness. Hence their wonder and admiration were turned rather upon the instruments than towards the agent. The sole connection John and Peter had with the miracle was that a higher power had used them as a means of effecting His gracious will. It does not appear that the apostles ever had the power of working miracles at their own discretion, but only at a signal given by the Holy Spirit. Significant as proof of this is the circumstance that Paul, though he wrought miracles, could not cure Epaphroditus when he was sick nigh unto death (Philippians 2:27), or Trophimus, whom he left at Miletus sick (2 Timothy 4:20). So the moral miracles performed by the Gospel in changing men’s hearts and lives are due to neither the ability nor the piety of those who preach the Gospel but solely to Him of whom the Gospel speaks. The right to say “I am He who healeth thee” belongs to God alone (Exodus 15:26; Psalms 103:3; Psalms 147:3).
3. Instructed as ill informed. The miracle had been done
(1) instrumentally by the apostles, which they did not deny: they had made the lame man to walk (Acts 3:12); and
(2) mediately by the man’s own faith, or at least by the apostles’ faith—a point which is duly emphasised (Acts 3:16; compare Acts 14:9); but nevertheless
(3) causally, or efficiently by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, or by the power which that name represented, and which accompanied the utterance of and belief in that name. So the healings of a spiritual sort which are effected by the Gospel of Jesus Christ are to be ascribed neither to the human agents by whom it is preached nor to the words in which it is set forth, but to the spirit and power alone of the exalted Christ (1 Corinthians 3:6-7; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 2:1; Philippians 1:6).
II. The people’s guilt rehearsed.—This is done indirectly and, as it were, by way of parenthesis, while introducing to their notice the real author of the miracle. The extent of their guilt lay in four things:
1. Treachery. By acquiescing in the wickedness of Caiaphas and Judas they had been practically guilty of delivering up Jesus into the hands of His enemies—they had, in fact, endorsed the crimes of their leaders and rulers. The solidarity of nations which renders the individual members thereof responsible, in a certain measure at least, for the deeds of their representatives, is apt to be forgotten.
2. Denial. When He stood before Pilate, and was by that Roman Governor pronounced “innocent,” and offered to be released as a compliment to their nation, they had cried “Away with Him! Crucify Him!” (Matthew 27:22; John 19:4; John 19:15.) In the most deliberate manner possible they had disowned Him who was really God’s holy and righteous One.
3. Rejection. Nor was that the worst that could be charged against them, but when Pilate gave them an opportunity of choosing between Jehovah’s Servant, the Prince of Life, and Barabbas, who for a certain sedition had been cast into prison, they actually chose the murderer to be granted to them (John 18:39-40). To such a depth of moral depravity had they sunk in their hostility to Jesus of Nazareth.
4. Crucifixion. They paused not in their hate till they had killed the Prince of Life, who not only had life in Himself but on more occasions than one had given life to others (Matthew 9:25; Luke 7:15; John 11:44)—killed Him by adjudging Him to the shameful and painful death of the cross (John 19:17-18). Here it should be noted that, heinous as these sins were, as great may still be committed against Christ (Hebrews 6:6).
Learn.—
1. The mistakes men make in judging of Christianity and its preachers.
2. The humility that ought to characterise every true servant of Christ.
3. The covenant-keeping character of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. The possibility of repeating the crimes of the Jews who crucified the Prince of Life.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 3:13. The God of our Fathers.
I. Our fathers had a God.—They were not atheists or agnostics. Descent from a pious ancestry a great privilege, entailing large responsibilities.
II. The God of our Fathers covenanted with them to bless their children.—The promise was made to them and to their children (Acts 2:39). And He is faithful who hath promised (Hebrews 10:23; Hebrews 11:11).
III. For this purpose the God of our fathers raised up Jesus and sent Him to bless us.—The whole mission of Christ, in His incarnation, death, resurrection, exaltation, and coming again in the spirit, a carrying out of the divine idea and purpose of salvation to which in a manner God had pledged Himself by His gracious promises to the fathers of Israel and the father of the faithful.
IV. Have we, the children of those fathers and the heirs of these promises, risen to the height of our privileges?—Have we taken our fathers’ God as our God? And the Saviour promised to the fathers as our Redeemer?
The Glory of Christ.
I. Essential.—
1. That which He had with the Father before the world was (John 17:5).
2. That which belonged to His own person when on earth—the glory of an only begotten from a Father full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
II. Delegated.—
1. When appointed by His Father to be the High Priest of humanity (Hebrews 5:5).
2. When in answer to prayer His Father showed Him to be the conqueror of death (John 11:4).
3. When by His own death upon the cross He triumphed over the principalities of evil (John 12:23; John 17:1).
4. When raised from the dead by the glory of His father (Acts 3:15; Romans 6:4).
5. When the Spirit reveals Him to the soul of man (John 16:14).
III. Acquired.—
1. The glory of sitting on the mediatorial throne (1 Corinthians 15:25).
2. The glory of being worshipped by the Church universal (Revelation 5:8-14).
3. The glory of being the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2).
4. The glory of being the final judge of mankind (John 5:27; Acts 17:31).
Acts 3:11-16. A Model for the Christian Preacher.—Found in Peter and his sermon, which reveal—
I. The spirit which should animate the preacher.—A spirit of self-abnegation and humility, which turns away the attention of his hearers from himself, as did John the Baptist (John 1:23; John 3:30).
II. The object at which the preacher should aim.—To exalt Christ and bring His glory and claims before the minds of his hearers, as again did the Baptist and Paul (1 Corinthians 2:2).
III. The manner in which the preacher should address his hearers.—With much plainness of speech, and even with personal directness, but yet with tenderness and sympathy, as once more did Paul (Philippians 3:18; 2 Corinthians 3:12).
IV. The theme on which the preacher should descant.—Not on himself, his own virtues and achievements, but on the name of Jesus, its glorious excellence and its power to heal and save, with the terms and conditions on which alone it can operate, as again did Paul (1 Corinthians 2:2).