Peter Heals the Lame Beggar #40

Peter’s healing of the lame beggar is the first miracle the book of Acts reports after Pentecost. At the temple gate called Beautiful in Jerusalem, Peter and John meet a man who has been lame from birth and heal him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. The event draws a crowd, prompts a sermon, and leads to the first arrest of the apostles.

The Account

Peter and John go up to the temple at the ninth hour, the time of afternoon prayer (Acts 3:1). At the gate called Beautiful, a man lame from birth is carried each day to ask for alms from those going in (Acts 3:2). He asks Peter and John for money. Peter fixes his eyes on him and says, “Look at us.” Expecting a gift, the man looks up, and Peter replies, “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.” (Acts 3:6).

Peter takes him by the right hand and raises him up, and at once his feet and ankles are made strong. He leaps up, stands, walks, and enters the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God (Acts 3:7-8). The people recognize him as the man who sat begging at the gate and are filled with wonder (Acts 3:9-10).

Setting and Context

The astonished crowd gathers in the area of the temple called Solomon’s Portico, and Peter uses the moment to preach. He insists that the man was healed not by the apostles’ own power or piety but by faith in the name of Jesus, whom the people had handed over and killed and whom God raised from the dead. He calls on them to repent (Acts 3:11-26).

The priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees arrive, annoyed that the apostles are proclaiming the resurrection from the dead in Jesus, and arrest Peter and John (Acts 4:1-3). The next day, before the rulers, elders, and scribes, Peter says the man was healed by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and that there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:8-12). The council, seeing the healed man standing beside them, has nothing to say in opposition. They admit privately that they cannot deny the miracle, order the apostles to stop speaking in Jesus’s name, and release them (Acts 4:14-21). Luke notes that the man was over forty years old (Acts 4:22).

What It Reveals

Luke presents the miracle as a continuation of Jesus’s ministry through his followers, the authority resting entirely in Jesus’s name. The healing recalls the Gospel stories of Jesus healing paralyzed and lame people, and Peter’s action of raising the man by the hand echoes Jesus’s own practice. Its setting in the temple, where the man had previously been barred from full participation because of his condition, is often read as a sign of restoration and inclusion.

The passage also introduces a pattern in Acts: a public sign, a sermon, and then opposition. Christian traditions read the account as showing that the apostles’ authority is derived, and that healing is tied to proclamation. The line “silver and gold I do not have” has often been cited in discussions of the church’s resources and priorities.