According to Acts, the power to work miracles was the supreme proof that the apostles had inherited the mission and authority of their Master. There are two critical attitudes toward miracles and they are exhibited in this chapter. First, faith is necessary in order that a miracle be worked. Second, miracles are the supreme way of awakening faith.

Peter and John were following their regular routine of attending the temple to pray. They were stopped by a lame man asking for money. Peter immediately took charge of the situation and John assumes a subordinate position. Some assumed that John was the brother of James, son of Zebedee and author of the fourth Gospel. But remember, Jesus nicknamed James and John, Boanerges (Sons of Thunder). Based on the nickname, it is not likely that John would take the subordinate position. Some authorities hold that this story comes from the original Marcan narrative which implies it is John Mark, the traditional interpreter of Peter. The actions of John in this case are indicative of the man who wrote the Gospel of Mark from the teachings of Peter.

When Peter had the man’s total attention, he said, "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) What Peter gave was not what was asked of him. What Peter gave was something he could not keep for himself. Some things do not change with time and can be kept. Some things can be preserved and kept for a while. Other things cannot be kept. Try to keep love to yourself and it will likely turn into lust. Try to keep peace to yourself and it will probably degenerate into passivity. Try to keep money and it will likely turn into mammon and become a God in itself. Try to keep Christ to yourself and you will probably become a bigot. Peter could not keep the precious gift of life in Christ. He could only give it away.

The man requested what would see him through the day. What Peter provided would see him through the rest of this life. The Christian tradition of healing brings to mind a question that prevails even today. "What part does the Christian religion play in the battle against disease?" There are two extreme views practiced today. The first is that religion plays the whole part in the battle against disease. They believe that man makes disease by his imperfect and impure thinking and man can therefore destroy disease by correcting his thinking and purifying his belief. The doctor has no place in this view as disease can be fought only by spiritual weapons.

The second extreme view is that religion plays no part in the battle against disease and many Christians hold that point of view. In practice, the doctor and the minister work together, but in parallel areas. Each has his own limited sphere of influence and if there is any overlapping, it is far more likely that the doctor assumes the role of spiritual counselor than the other way around.

There is a third point of view that is clearly expressed in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. This point of view is not presented as a theory but illustrated by actions. Four facts emerge from the actions of Jesus. First is that Jesus indisputably made sick people well. Second, He made people well before he made them good. Third, when John the Baptist asked for Jesus’ credentials, notice the order in which he listed them. "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear … and the poor have the gospel preached to them." (Matthew 11:5) Finally, when Jesus sent his disciples, he told them to "preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick." (Luke 9:2)

This third view treats mankind as a composite being and not just the sum of his parts. Body, mind and spirit comprise the whole being and they do not work independently. When your body is experiencing pain, your spirit may not be as outgoing and accepting as normal. When your mind is harassed by doubts and anxieties, your body soon shows the strain - sometimes in the inability to sleep. Man is a trinity of interrelated parts, body, mind, and spirit. But the greatest of these is spirit. This spirit is one of those things you cannot keep to yourself. It is like a river and must flow to keep from becoming stagnant. When a man’s energies are so dammed up within him that he is continually obsessed with himself, it is no wonder that his body stalls. He is fatigued not because he is exhausted, but because he is stagnant.

The people marveled at the miracle and looked on Peter and John with amazement. On this occasion we get Peter’s second sermon. Like all great preaching, it was drawn out of him by a situation. The people wanted to know what was going on. They wanted someone to interpret the facts. The first thing Peter did was to refuse credit for the cure. He reminded the people of God’s actions on behalf of man. He reminded the people of their actions that led to the crucifixion. And then he pointed out that that faith in this Jesus Christ that they had crucified and God resurrected from the dead was the power that cured this man in their presence.

Peter’s sermon would be extremely unfamiliar and the language would be considered strange coming from the pulpit today. But the message presented in familiar terms and language is the same message that should be preached today. The challenge for today’s preachers is to keep the message the same while presenting it against a current background. Many succumb to the temptation to present a "culturally relevant" message in an attempt to blend into the current background. We must remember that Jesus Christ is Eternal. He is not local or temporary and his message remains the same even when the background changes.

There are four observations that help to illuminate Jesus to an inquirer. First, Jesus Christ is a fact. His birth, life, and death are facts of recorded history. We can verify his life from sources outside of the Holy Scriptures. At the same time, we are sophisticated enough to realize that historical records are more like reflections of the truth than direct reproductions of it. That brings us to the second observation. A study of the atomic bomb would be meaningless without including the effects it wrought on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the same token, we cannot make an evaluation of Jesus by using a single story that suits our fancy. We must consider the complete life and death of Jesus in addition to the people of Palestine to whom he brought eternal life. Jesus was a liberator. He set them free from an abnormal sense of guilt, from a gnawing sense of insecurity, from a despair that was rotting away their lives, from the fear of death, from meaningless suffering and from the grappling power of sin itself. Any account of the life and love of Jesus must include the power of love to set men free.

The third observation illumines the effect of Jesus’ life on mankind. Many of the early heresies stemmed from those who claimed that Jesus was just another man while granting he was a little better than the rest of mankind. While some of these heresies are still around today, history and the impact of his life on mankind belies their arguments. After the life of Christ, the whole universe looked different. It was the revelation and release of a new energy in the universe. It was the energy of the love of God. The energy had always existed, but the life of Jesus let it loose. From the beginning people sensed the fact that Jesus began a new era. They began to explain his relationship with God and his place in the total human picture in terms of the Messiah. He was the spiritual liberator. Thus, they declared the Father and Son relationship between Jesus and God.

The last observation to illuminate the reality of Jesus is in the experience of His life in our own. A man can read about Jesus in the Bible, talk about him, and theorize about him, but he never appreciates Jesus’ real meaning until he sees him affect a human life with an inexplicable power. Sometimes it is felt in our own lives. Sometimes it is observed in the life of others. At that point, Jesus is no longer a matter of experiment or argument. The theory and generalizations of theology become intimate possessions of personal experience. A person suddenly sees that all that he adores in God is in Jesus and he finds in Jesus all that he will ever need in God. When the study of Jesus becomes a personal relationship, the truth proclaimed by Peter, Paul, and all the others through the ages makes sense.