Acts 3:11-26 And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon's… 1. This speech is a greater miracle than the cure. The great miracles are all wrought within. Compare Peter before the resurrection with the Peter of this speech, and tell me what has happened. Surely a great cure has been wrought up,m him. You cannot work miracles, because you yourselves are not miracles. We approach the whole case from the outside, and with many lame suggestion we attempt to mend the world's sad condition. We must be greater ourselves than any work which it is possible for ourselves to do. 2. In this speech Peter vindicated his apostolic primacy. You might have asked questions concerning Peter's superiority before, but after this all men feel that the first place belongs to him. Any primacy that is not based on merit must go down. For time you may bolster up a man; but a superiority of position that is not based upon fundamental and vital merit falls before the testing touch of circumstances and time. So let this book of God stand or fall. The priests cannot keep it up. Parliaments and thrones cannot give the Bible its lasting primacy. If the inspiration he not in the book itself you cannot communicate it; and if the inspiration really be in the book itself you can never talk it down. By force you may quiet it for a time, but truth is eternal, it returns. 3. The danger is that we be not just to such men as Peter. We may take this speech as a mere matter of course. We hear an eloquent man drop sentence after sentence of singular beauty, and think that he does so simply as a matter of course. In every such sentence there is a drop of sacrificial blood. True eloquence is forced out of men. This speech was not a prepared oration which he took out and read; it was as extemporaneous as was the event itself. The looking people make the eloquent preacher. All the people fastened their eyes upon Peter and John; and, as the lame man had drawn out of Peter spiritual power by his magnetic look, so the people drew out of Peter still higher power by their marvelling. 4. In reply to that wonder Peter declines any primacy based on purely personal considerations. "This is not our doing. It is the Lord's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes." And, with inspired wisdom, he magnified the occasion by attaching the miracle to the omnipotence of a God about whose existence the Jew had no doubt. "The God of Abraham," etc. The apostles did not snatch at praise for themselves. They maintained their royal supremacy by operating in the presence of the people merely as the servants and instruments of God. We must return to that allegiance to the Divine name and throne. 5. Not only does Peter decline the implied eulogium, he takes upon himself to cut the people to pieces. No great progress can be made in moral reform until our apostles slay us. Flattery will do nothing for us — at most, will but mislead or bewilder us. Hear his speech, "Whom ye delivered up," etc. That man must succeed in his ministry, or he must be killed! Such a speaker of such an address cannot occupy a middle position. When did the apostles speak with bated breath and whispering humbleness? When did they try to make the best of the case by appeasing the spirit of the people, and by an endeavour to placate sensibilities which had been strongly excited? So we come back to a truth with which this message has made us familiar. We are not to put away the Crucifixion as an historical circumstance, nineteen centuries old. The Crucifixion takes place every day. Realise this circumstance, and there will go up the old cry, and after it will come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. 6. In ver. 17 the tone changes with wondrous skill. The gospel is not an impeachment only — it is an offer, and he introduces this new phase of the subject with a word which united himself with the people — "brethren." This verse repeats the very prayer of Christ Himself upon the Cross. So he opens a great door of hope. The Church ought to be fertile in its invention of opportunities for the worst men to return. Tell the very worst man that the door of hope, if not wide open, is yet ajar, and that the very faintest touch of his fingers will cause it to fall back to the very wall. 7. Then comes the keyword of apostolic preaching, and the secret of apostolic success "repent" (ver. 19). It is like the sword of which David said, "Give me that; there is none like it." This word "repent" goes to the root and to the reality of the case. Who has repented? I do not ask who has been alarmed by threatened consequences, and who therefore has professed a change of habit and of purpose. My question is a deeper one. Who has felt heart-brokenness on account of sin, as a spiritual offence against God? Have we not forgotten that old word? Has the Church become too dainty to use it? 8. There is another word in ver. 19 of as much importance — "therefore" — which refers to the historical and logical argument upon which Christianity is founded. Peter having gone back to "God of Abraham," etc., and having traced the history of the Crucifixion, and having explained the secret by which the lame man had been healed, etc., gathers himself up in this one supreme effort, and says, "Repent ye, therefore — for no sentimental reasons, but on the historical ground of the ancient dealings of God with His people, and because of the culmination of those dealings in the recovery of the man who is standing there. 9. Then Peter's speech proceeds like a deep, broad river, and ends with Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you." Apostolic preaching was tender, but it kept itself to this one theme. And because it did so it turned the world upside down. Preacher, come back from all intellectual vagaries, romances, and dreamings, and stand to your one work of accusing men of sins, and then revealing the living Son of God, who came with the one purpose only of blessing men. Blessing and iniquity never can co-exist in the same heart. The iniquity must go, and the blessing will come. The wickedness must depart, and then angels will hasten into the soul from which it has gone out. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering. |
    |