Rise Up and Walk

Every day the people carried to the temple a certain man who had been crippled since birth. They laid him at the gate so he could ask those who entered the temple for alms, or money.

One day Peter and John, who had been disciples of Jesus while He lived on earth, went together to the temple at the hour of prayer. When the crippled man saw them, he called out.

Peter and John stopped. They turned and saw how crippled the man was. Peter said to him, “Look at us!”

The man looked up at these disciples of Jesus, expecting to receive a coin from them.

But instead Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have I give thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”

Then Peter reached down and took the man by the right hand and lifted him up. Immediately strength came into the man’s feet and ankles that had been useless all forty years of his life. He stood up and walked and entered into the temple, leaping and praising God.

The people who saw the cripple walking were amazed because he had always sat at the gate of the temple and begged. They could not understand what had happened, so they crowded around Peter and John and the healed man, marveling at the miracle.

When Peter saw them, he asked, “Why do you marvel? Why do you look at us as though by our own power we had made this man walk? God has healed this man through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, whom you crucified. Repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be forgiven!”

Many of the five thousand people who were in the crowd believed Peter. But the priests and leaders of the people were angry when they heard Peter tell about Jesus Christ and His resurrection. They had Peter and John thrown into prison.

The next day Peter, John, and the man who had been healed were taken before the same priests and rulers who had tried Jesus. They demanded to know by what power and in whose name the crippled man had been healed.

Peter answered, “Be it known to all people, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead, this man stands before you whole.”

The officials did not know what to do. They met together and decided that Peter and John must not be allowed to speak about or teach in the name of Jesus.

“Whether it is right in the sight of God to obey you more than God, you must judge, for we only speak the things that we have seen and heard,” Peter and John replied.

The officials gave another warning to the disciples and then let them go, for they could find no reason to hold them.

Later when the followers of Jesus met together, they were so filled with the Holy Ghost that the place in which they met was shaken.

And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul, and they glorified God for the miracle that made it possible for the crippled to walk.(Acts 3–4.)

Illustration courtesy Providence Lithograph Company