Acts 3 is a fascinating Scripture to me and has really captivated by heart over the last little while. In this chapter you find Peter and John healing a man who had been crippled from birth, and then totally giving credit to Jesus for the healing. As a matter of fact, they renounced their own piety and power as a cause for the man’s healing and basically said that it was Jesus and His faith in his own ability to heal the man that brought about the perfect health. I love when Peter initially said to the man who is begging for money, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!” They were confessing that they didn’t possess the level of maturity, anointing, or spirituality that would change this man’s life. Instead, they confess that they possessed the same thing that every single Christian possesses, the person, ability, and the faith of Jesus in his own ability to do all things. In verse 13 – 15, they confronted the Jewish bystanders with the fact that this One who had just perfectly healed the lame man was rejected and crucified by them. It is interesting what Peter said to them in verses 17 and 18, “And now brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your fathers did also. But all the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.” Beginning in verse 19 through the rest of the chapter, Peter invites those who had witnessed the miracle to repent and return to the Lord that their sins might be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Peter speaks about the period of restoration that had been promised by the prophets when the Christ would come. The words “wiped away” actually come from a Greek compound verb that literally means “anoint away.” He isn’t just talking about forgiveness here. He’s talking about Christ’s anointing to apply the victory of the Cross to set us experientially free from sin’s power that we might know personally continual times of refreshing because of the presence of the Lord Jesus in our lives. The healing of the man who had been lame from birth was an example of the period of restoration of all things, and Peter is inviting these Jews to embrace Jesus so that they can join in perpetual refreshing and experience the restoration of all things to God’s original intent even in their own personal lives.
