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Acts 3:11–13
“The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him” (v. 13).
Many people were present at the Beautiful Gate at the Jerusalem temple when Peter and John healed the lame beggar (Acts 3:9–10). These Jews were rightly “filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to [the beggar]” as they saw him entering the temple with the Apostles. Desiring to learn more about the miracle, as we see in today’s passage, the people gathered around them “in the portico called Solomon’s” (v. 11).
Solomon’s Portico was on the east side of the outer temple court, and it bore that name because of some Jewish legends that Solomon had built it. When a crowd gathered there, Peter began to preach a sermon, starting with a statement that it was not his or John’s power or piety that had healed the lame beggar (v. 12). Although the Apostle does not say so directly, we know that the power was actually that of the Holy Spirit granted to the Apostles by Jesus when He poured out the Spirit on the church (2:33). Ultimately, then, the healing of the man was actually a work of Jesus, by His Spirit, through the Apostles.
Peter chose to point to the real power behind the healing that the Apostles performed by explaining the identity and saving mission of the One who granted the power, Jesus Christ. He starts not with the earthly ministry of Jesus but with His glorification, saying that “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers” had glorified Jesus (3:13). In saying this, Peter sets the mission of Jesus firmly within the context of God’s covenant with the people of Israel. He was preaching to Jews, and it was important for them to know that while our Creator was doing a new thing in Jesus, it was in continuity with what had come before. Matthew Henry comments that Peter’s words indicate that “God sent [Jesus] into the world, pursuant to the promises made to those patriarchs, that in their seed the families of the earth should be blessed, and the covenant made with them, that God would be a God to them, and their seed.”
The God of the patriarchs (see Ex. 3:6) was at work in glorifying Jesus, indicating His approval of His “servant.” Applying the title of the Lord’s servant to Jesus identifies Jesus with the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 52:13–53:12. The prophecy of Isaiah described that servant’s glory before his suffering, and Peter does the same for Jesus in Acts 3 because He is the servant whom Isaiah foresaw.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The work of Jesus stands in continuity with all that God did and said through the old covenant people of Israel. Consequently, we cannot understand Jesus’ person and work if we do not know the Scriptures that He gave to Israel. Only by studying the Old Testament can we rightly understand what God is saying to us in the New Testament.
For further study
- Leviticus 26:40–45
- Galatians 3:15–29
The bible in a year
- Exodus 31–33
- Matthew 22:23–46
- Exodus 34–38
- Matthew 23:1–22