Leaping
So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God (Acts 3:8).
One of the things I have most missed throughout COVID is being able to freely visit the Lake District. I especially miss not being there in the lambing season when the countryside is full of life. It is during this time you see a delightful aspect of nature, when newborn lambs leap. It is a simple but extraordinary sight to see these beautiful creatures, in the joy of being alive, run and then suddenly leap into the air.
The lame beggar was healed through Peter’s ministry at the beginning of Acts 3. Luke writes that the man sat begging outside the Beautiful Gate to the Temple. He must have wished many times that he could have joined the passing worshippers as they walked into God’s House. I remember visiting the Temple area in Jerusalem. As I walked into one of the enclosed areas, a young orthodox Jew at the entrance smiled at me and said, “Welcome to the House of God.” In Acts 2, Peter and the disciples had welcomed 3000 people into the Church of Christ. At the beginning of Acts 3, Peter and John received one man into the Church, and how full of life he was! His very first response to Peter’s invitation to “rise up and walk” was to leap up. He had life that was immediately expressed. It is lovely to see him enter the Temple with two brothers in Christ, “walking, leaping, and praising God”. But Luke also tells us the man “held on to Peter and John”. He demonstrated life in Christ and being in a fellowship of life with his new brethren. God used his witness to gather a vast company of people who were amazed at what had happened. Peter, who had come with John to pray in the Temple, instinctively preaches Christ in the Temple.
In Acts 4:2 we are told Peter and John “taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead”, with the healed man standing with them as evidence of Christ’s power to save. Persecution by the priests, the captain of the Temple, and the Sadducees swiftly followed, and Peter and John were arrested. But that day around 5000 people opened their hearts to Christ. All of these events happened by the sovereign intervention of God in the life of one helpless beggar. He was led to ask for alms of Peter and John, who had gone to the Temple, not to preach but to pray. From that tiny action, Peter responds by sharing the Saviour and glorifying His name: “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Paul writes of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, starting with two attributes of that fruit, “love, joy” (v. 22). The love of God and the joy of salvation were fully seen that day. Life is given and expressed, other lives are affected, the Gospel is preached, and people are led to the Lord.
Such powerful events marked the beginning of the fulfilment of Christ’s word, “And you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” But we must never forget the circumstances of our witness are under the hand of God. We despair at the hardness of the world around us to the Gospel of Christ, but God still works sovereignly in the hearts of people. And part of this work is expressing in us the joy of salvation. When was the last time I leapt for joy at my salvation?
