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William Barclay · Citado em PreceptAustin
Atos 3
Barclay explains gives some background on importance of giving alms in first century Judaism - "To the Jew almsgiving was the most sacred of all religious duties. How sacred it was may be seen from the fact that the Jews used the same word—tzedakah—both for righteousness and alms giving! To give alms and to be righteous were one and the same thing. To give alms was to gain merit in the sight of God, and was even to win atonement and forgiveness for past sins. “Prayer with fasting is good, but better than both is almsgiving with righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than wealth with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to lay up gold. For almsgiving saves from death and purges away every sin. Those who give alms will enjoy a full life, but those who commit sin and do wrong are their own worst enemies. (Tobit 12:8)…There was a rabbinic saying “Greater is he who gives alms than he who offers all sacrifices.” Almsgiving stood first in the catalogue of good works. It was then natural and inevitable that the man who desired to be good should concentrate on almsgiving. The highest teaching of the Rabbis was exactly the same as the teaching of Jesus. They too forbade ostentatious almsgiving. “He who gives alms in secret,” they said, “is greater than Moses.” The almsgiving which saves from death is that “when the recipient does not know from whom he gets it, and when the giver does not know to whom he gives it.” There was a Rabbi who, when he wished to give alms, dropped money behind him, so that he would not see who picked it up. “It were better,” they said, “to give a man nothing, than to give him something, and to put him to shame.” There was one particularly lovely custom connected with the Temple. In the Temple there was a room called The Chamber of the Silent. People who wished to make atonement for some sin placed money there; and poor people from good families who had come down in the world were secretly helped by these contributions. (Gospel of Matthew - Daily Study Bible ) (Bolding added) Acts 3:4 But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, "Look at us!" KJV Acts 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. Fixed his gaze on him and said Acts 11:6; 14:9,10; Luke 4:20 Look at us! Acts 3:12; John 5:6; 11:40 Acts 3 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries JUST ONE LOOK IS ALL IT TOOK! But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him - (NET = "Peter looked directly at him (as did John)")Just one look is all it took to change the lame man's eternal destiny from eternal punishment to eternal bliss! There is an old top 40 hit from 1963 entitled Just One Look! Yes, it is a secular song but if you listen to the words, (while not perfect) it is amazing how they might have echoed the thoughts of this first century lame man and been his "theme song!" We see a similar visual encounter in the ministry of Paul Acts 13:9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him (Elymas the magician - context - Acts 13:8-12), Acts 14:9 This man (cf Acts 14:8) was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze on him and had seen that he had faith to be made well, 10) said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet.” And he leaped up and began to walk. Comment - Note carefully what preceded this lame man's manifestation of faith - in Acts 14:7 "they continued to preach the gospel." Remember that Ro 1:16 says the gospel is "the power of God for salvation to those who believe." The Word preached stirred up genuine faith much as Paul described in Romans 10:17 and his genuine faith resulted in healing his crippled heart (salvation) and his crippled legs (physical healing). David
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Barclay - THE Jewish day began at 6 am and ended at 6 pm. For devout Jews, there were three special times for prayer—morning, noon and evening. They agreed that prayer was effective wherever it was offered, but they felt that it was doubly precious when offered in the Temple courts. It is very interesting that the apostles kept up the customs in which they had been trained. Martyn Lloyd-Jones - Here is the tonic, there is the place to get refreshment, where we feel the life of God pulsating in the early Christian church . . . There is always the danger that we should think of Christianity as something abstract and intellectual. Though we must know the theory and have the understanding, we must never forget that first and foremost the Christian faith deals with life and living; it is the most revolutionary power the world has ever known. A dead church is a contradiction in terms. . . the church is life, and it is power, and it is vigor. All of this is perfectly illustrated and exemplified for us in this story in Acts 3. Here is the church in action, the church facing the world. Temple (Diagram of the Temple - courts are toward right side) 2413)(hieros) in this context refers to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem and includes not only the Temple building but the courts and all the sacred ground or enclosure. They would not have been going for prayer in the Temple building per se but in the courts surrounding the Temple proper. Most commentaries agree that the new believers were in the Temple praying, but did not continue their former Jewish practices of offering sacrifices as called for in the Mosaic Law. Prayer (4335)(proseuche from pros = toward or immediately before + euchomai = to pray or vow) is the general word for prayer. The prefix pros would convey the sense of being immediately before God and hence the ideas of adoration, devotion, and worship. The basic idea is to bring something, and in prayer this pertains to bringing prayer requests. In early Greek culture an offering was brought with a prayer that it be accepted. Later the idea was changed slightly, so that the thing brought to God was a prayer. In later Greek, prayers appealed to God for His presence. Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscles of omnipotence. The apostles had heard Jesus last teaching on prayer in the Upper Room Discourse (John 13-16) and now they were practicing what He preached when He said "Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." (Jn 14:13-14). CHART: TIME TO PRAY The Jews had set times of prayer, but the clear teaching (and example) of the New Testament is that believers are to be in a spirit of prayerfulness at all times. Our lives should be one long running conversation with the Father. (Verses quoted from NLT) Scripture Time of Prayer Romans 1:9-10 "Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God." Ephesians 6:18 "Pray at all times and on every occasion . . . be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere." Colossians 1:3 "We always pray for you" 1 Th 1:3 "We . . . pray for you constantly." 1 Th 2:13 "We will never stop thanking God." 1 Th 5:17 "Keep on praying." 2 Timothy 1:3 "Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers." From Life Application Bible Commentary – Acts. Acts 3:2 And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. KJV Acts 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb Acts 4:22; 14:8; John 1:9-30 Whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple Luke 16:20 In order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple Acts 10:4,31; Luke 18:35; John 9:8 Acts 3 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along - Carried along is in the imperfect tense describing this as a repeated action, over and over, presumably day after day. This fact would mean that the Jews who went to the Temple to pray or sacrifice would be quite familiar with this man and his crippled condition (Acts 3:10) and thus prepared by God's providence to witness a miracle of healing. Luke does not tell how long he was lame here but he does in Acts 4:22 noting that "the man was more than forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed." The phrase from his mother's womb suggests that this was a "congenital defect, although it is possibly that he sustained the injury in the birthing process. The phrase was being carried along sets us up for the miracle, as he did not just have a "limp" but he was totally lame and completely unable to ambulate on his own. DIVINE APPOINTMENTS - Peter and John had made plans to attend a three o'clock prayer service. Perhaps they hoped to share their new faith with some old friends. Or maybe they wanted to make contact with one of the other apostles. As busy religious leaders on an important religious mission, they might have brushed off the lame beggar who accosted them at the temple gate for a handout. But Peter and John recognized the sovereign nature of this encounter. In the Name of Christ (and by His power), they healed the beggar. This precipitated a series of evangelistic opportunities that no one—except God—could have predicted. Be careful that you don't get so preoccupied with doing God's work that you miss God's will right before your eyes. (Life Application Bible Commentary – Acts) (Bolding added) Lame (5560)(cholos from chalao = to slacken, loosen) is an adjective which literally means crippled or lame (Lxx of Lev 21:18, Dt 15:21 = lameness makes a sacrifice unacceptable). Figuratively in Hebrews 12:13+ cholos speaks of "lame" in a spiritual sense. Cholos - 14v - Mt. 11:5; 15:30, 31; Mt. 18:8; 21:14; Mk. 9:45; Lk. 7:22; Lk. 14:13; Lk. 14:21; Jn. 5:3; Acts 3:2; 8:7;14:8; Heb. 12:13. Cholos is used in Mt 11 in a very informative passage - Now when John (THE BAPTIZER), while imprisoned, heard of the works of Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Expected One (WHAT IS HE ASKING? HE IS ASKING IF JESUS IS THE MESSIAH!), or shall we look for someone else?” 4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: 5 the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT (cf Ps 146:8, Isa 35:5+) and the lame (cholos) walk (cf Isa 35:6+), the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM (Isa 61:1). (Mt 11:2-5) So when John asked Jesus (through his disciples) if He was the long expected Messiah, Jesus answered in a way that might be difficult for a Gentile (or Christians today) to understand, but would have been very understandable to John. John would have been assured that yes, Jesus was the Messiah. In other words, Jesus' answer quoting partially from the Old Testament, was that He was the One Who was performing the miracles that the OT had prophesied would be performed by the Messiah. And so it follows logically that Jesus is the Messiah. Now here in Acts 3, the miracle that God chooses to perform is a miracle that would have been performed by the Messiah and the Jews would have been aware of that fact. However, Jesus was not present, and Peter and John seem to the Jews to be the ones who perform the miracle. And yet as explained below it was in fact Jesus Who performed this miracle through His apostles (His ambassadors) (See Acts 3:6, 13, 16, 20). And using the same logic, if you were a Jew in the crowd, you would understand when Peter gave credit to Jesus as the One Who healed the lame man, that Jesus was the Messiah. And of course He had to be a living Messiah, not a dead Messiah, in order to perform this miracle through the apostles. The Jews knew that Jesus had died on the Cross. The clear implication then is that yes Jesus died but He was resurrected, which are essential truths in the Gospel. So with this perfect "introduction" ("illustration") Peter proceeds to clearly preach the Gospel (Acts 3:12-26). The miraculous healing by Jesus was simply a sign to point to Himself as Messiah and to prepare the Jewish audience to hear and receive the Gospel (at least 2000 received, but there were doubtless many who did not). Are not God's ways so much higher than our ways? (Isa 55:9) Indeed they are, but too often we simply do not have the spiritual eyes to see His divine plan in our lives! Let us pray Paul's prayer frequently for ourselves and those believers in our sphere of influence... I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that (1) you will know what is the hope of His calling, (2) what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and (3) what is the surpassing greatness of His power (IN CONTEXT = RESURRECTION POWER!) toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:18-20+, cf 1 Jn 5:14-15+) This man's helpless physical condition reminds me of our helpless spiritual condition - For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Ro 5:6+) Whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the Temple - The oriental custom was for beggars to sit at the entrance of a temple or shrine, reasoning that as people were in an attitude of worship, they would be more likely to give a hand-out.
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Barclay - W. H. Davies, the tramp poet, tells how one of his vagrant friends told him that, whenever he came into a new town, he looked for a church spire with a cross on the top and began to beg in that area. Love of other people and love of God must always go hand in hand. In order to - term of purpose - always take time to query purpose clauses ("What purpose?", etc) It slows you down, causes you to re-read the text and gives the Spirit time to illuminate the text. Beg alms of those who were entering the Temple - See note on Alms below. As noted above the "Temple" (Diagram of the Temple - courtyard on right side) refers to the courtyard around the main Temple building. Gangel - "Ogilvie observes, "I have watched beggars in cities all over the world. They have a highly developed sense of who will respond. While walking down a street one day, I spied a beggar at the end of the block. I noticed his eyes darted from person to person as they passed by him, and he called out for a gift from only certain people. He could tell which ones were likely to stop" (Ogilvie, 81)." (Holman New Testament Commentary – Acts)