Peter reached down and grabbed the lame man’s hand, pulling him to his feet. He told the man, who was begging for money at the temple gate, that he didn’t have any money, but he did have the power of Jesus Christ within him.
Peter gave the man the ability to walk. Now the man could go on to work for himself, no longer begging by the gate as he had done day after day depending on others to give him a few coins, but instead he could walk!
Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.
Acts 3:6-7
The people who were there at the temple came to see Peter. The man had gone into the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God. What a great miracle had been done for a man who could previously not walk!
Yet Peter doesn’t go on to tell the people about the gift of healing people. He doesn’t tell the people about how they too can lay their hands on people, if only they believe and receive the Holy Spirit.
No, he tells them about a much greater miracle than that. Peter tells them about how the dead came alive. He tells them about the resurrection.
And why?
Peter knows that they too can come alive. The people don’t even realize that they are dead before God, but in Jesus they will be made alive. They don’t realize that they are the walking dead, destined for judgment. But in Jesus, they can be changed into who they were made to be, living as a new creation in the image of God!
The miracle is the confirmation of what Peter is telling the people. The miracle is the power of the kingdom of God breaking into the physical world. Yet we should not look to be the person who just wants the miracle. We should seek the one who can do all things and know him. We must know Jesus so that we who have been dead can come alive in him because what he has, he desires to also give to us.