The lame man leaps (3) - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.
Acts 3:6–7

The lame man leaps (3)
The beggar expects a small gift from the apostles – but Peter refers him to “Jesus Christ of Nazareth”; the beggar expects something for sustenance – but Peter heals him, making him well (ch. 4:9). How “silver and gold” and all other alms pale in comparison to this!

Peter refers to Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He had been rejected and crucified here in Jerusalem only a few weeks before. He came from Nazareth, that small and despised town about which someone once said: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” – But this Jesus also said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (John 1:46; Matthew 28:18).

Then Peter takes the man by the hand and lifts him up. And immediately, “his feet and ankle bones received strength” (a statement of Luke, who was himself a doctor), nerves responded, tendons and muscles moved. The formerly lame man was now healthy: immediately – completely – permanently. And this without hospital, rehabilitation or medication.

A little later Peter has to answer for this healing before the religious elite of Jerusalem, and he refers once again to Jesus: “If we this day are judged … by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole” (ch. 4:5–10).

Even today, one cannot be saved by any other name than Jesus (ch. 4:12)!

(to be continued tomorrow)

Today’s reading: 1 Samuel 17:1-16 · Psalms 103:1-12