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Acts 3

A man’s healing becomes the occasion for Peter to proclaim the risen Jesus and call Israel to repentance.

Peter and John are entering the temple for afternoon prayer when a man unable to walk since birth asks them for money. Peter commands him to walk in Jesus’ name, and the man enters the temple praising God. A crowd gathers at Solomon’s porch. Peter directs their attention to the risen Jesus, confronts their part in his rejection, and calls them to repent, connecting these events with God’s promises through the prophets.

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1Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
2A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.
4Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.”
6But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”
7He took him by the right hand and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength.
8Leaping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God.
9All the people saw him walking and praising God.
10They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
11As the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering.
12When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk?
13The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.
14But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,
15and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.
16By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which is through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17“Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
18But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.
19“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,
20and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before,
21whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.
22For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you.
23It will be that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’
24Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, also told of these days.
25You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘All the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.’
26God, having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to you first to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your wickedness.”
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Key verses
Acts 3:19Peter’s call to repent moves his address from confronting Jesus’ rejection to promising forgiveness and refreshing from God.
Acts 3:15The contrast between killing the Prince of life and God raising him anchors Peter’s witness to Jesus.
Acts 3:25The promise to Abraham places Peter’s hearers within a covenant whose blessing reaches all the families of the earth.
Where this chapter reaches

Acts 3 repeats the promise in Genesis that all the families of the earth will receive blessing through Abraham’s offspring, and shares Isaiah’s themes of God’s servant and suffering. Its account of Jesus’ rejection before Pilate and resurrection shares events narrated in Luke and John.

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After reading the whole chapter

What stands out about the way Peter connects the man’s healing with Jesus’ resurrection?

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How does Peter’s closing description of blessing shape your understanding of repentance?

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Questions people ask about Acts 3

What are the times of refreshing in Acts 3:19?

Peter connects refreshing from the Lord’s presence with repentance and sins being blotted out. His next words look toward God sending Jesus and the restoration spoken of by the prophets. The passage holds forgiveness and future restoration together, without giving a timetable or defining every aspect of that refreshing.

Whose faith healed the man in Acts 3?

Peter says the man received strength through faith in Jesus’ name, describing that faith as coming through Jesus. The account does not specify whose faith he means. Before the healing, the man is described as expecting money. Peter rejects the idea that his own power or godliness made the man walk.

Who is the prophet like Moses in Acts 3?

Peter applies Moses’ promise of a coming prophet to Jesus. In this speech, Jesus is the one whom his hearers must heed, and refusing that prophet carries judgment. Peter places this promise alongside the witness of the other prophets and God’s covenant promise of blessing through Abraham’s offspring.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).