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Healing of the Cripple
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they had expected all such wonderful manifestations to cease with
Him. Yet here was this man who had been a helpless cripple for
forty years, now rejoicing in the full use of his limbs, free from pain,
and happy in believing on Jesus.
The apostles saw the amazement of the people, and questioned
them why they should be astonished at the miracle which they had
witnessed, and regard them with awe as though it were through their
own power they had done this thing. Peter assured them it was done
through the merits of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had rejected
and crucified, but whom God had raised from the dead the third day.
“And His name through faith hath made this man strong, whom ye
see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this
perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I
wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But
those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all His
prophets that Christ should suffer He hath so fulfilled.”
After the performance of this miracle the people flocked together
in the temple, and Peter addressed them in one part of the temple,
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while John spoke to them in another part. The apostles, having
spoken plainly of the great crime of the Jews, in rejecting and putting
to death the Prince of life, were careful not to drive them to madness
or despair. Peter was willing to lessen the atrocity of their guilt as
much as possible, by presuming that they did the deed ignorantly. He
declared to them that the Holy Ghost was calling for them to repent
of their sins and to be converted; that there was no hope for them
except through the mercy of that Christ whom they had crucified;
through faith in Him only could their sins be cancelled by His blood.
Arrest and Trial of the Apostles
This preaching the resurrection of Christ, and that through His
death and resurrection He would finally bring up all the dead from
their graves, deeply stirred the Sadducees. They felt that their fa-
vorite doctrine was in danger and their reputation at stake. Some
of the officials of the temple, and the captain of the temple, were
Sadducees. The captain, with the help of a number of Sadducees,
arrested the two apostles and put them in prison, as it was too late
for their cases to be examined that night.