Christ Gives Peter Power to Heal

BY Kaitlin Wernet

Text: Acts 3:1-26, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Deuteronomy 18:15-19

Bisque. It’s a soup I’d stirred in a bowl, warmed in a saucer, slurped with a spoon, but never actually learned how to pronounce. (Say it with me now: “bisk.”)

That is, until it was too late.

I was an over-eager high schooler, working my first job as a waitress in a retirement home. My first task at the beginning of each shift was to shuffle my non-slip shoes to each table of residents and recite that evening’s dinner menu. They would all nod in unison at the mention of pork chops and green beans, mashed potatoes and yeast rolls—a rotating list most of them could have recited themselves. Oh, and the soup of the day, you ask? Butternut bisque.

“Butternut bis-kway,” I projected enthusiastically. (In my defense, the “q” makes it look all fancy and foreign and makes me want to speak in an accent, okay?)

Eyebrows furrowed and whispers ensued as I skipped confidently into the kitchen to inquire about—what I assumed to be—an exotic new dish I’d get to introduce. But I was soon called out, forced to correct my mistake. Butternut “bis-kway” was, in fact, the same ole butternut “bisk” that had been served every Tuesday for years. Those sweet residents never trusted me with their soup orders again.

In Acts 3, Peter is calling out the early Church—not because of a silly mistake or mispronunciation, but because of a miracle. When a crippled man known around town for begging at the temple gates encountered Peter, he didn’t get the silver or gold he asked for; he got something much, much better.

“I don’t have silver or gold, but what I have, I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!”

-Acts 3:6

The man was healed. He could walk. A miracle indeed! But when the crowd around them looked at Peter and John with shocked faces, Peter asked, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this?” (Acts 3:12).

Why was Peter so frustrated? What did the people get wrong?

The Israelites misread the miracle.

In Acts 3, God empowered Peter to give the crippled man more than what he asked for, yet exactly what he needed, surpassing human limitations in doing so. The onlookers’ amazement suggested they believed this extraordinary act was the result of superhuman powers or even a fluke. But Peter set them straight, explaining that everything they witnessed was in line with the Truth he’d been trying to tell them all along.

They would misunderstand the purpose of miracles altogether.

Since this is the first miracle mentioned in the book of Acts, it’s a pivotal time for the early Church—and you and me—to learn the real deal about miracles. Peter didn’t start a fire with his hands or make the beggar levitate—he healed him. Miracles are given to awaken confidence in God and to heal humanity. Each miracle Jesus and His apostles performed gave a glimpse into God’s plan to restore all things (Acts 3:21). Each act pointed to the truest miracle of all: Christ Himself.

They would mispronounce the gospel of Christ.

The crowd watched as the beggar took his first steps, but they themselves would walk away believing and preaching a false gospel. They missed the point entirely; miracles aren’t just for our physical benefit, but for our spiritual benefit. While Peter said, “Get up and walk!” to the beggar, the miracle whispers two more words to us: “to Christ.”

Get up and walk to Christ.

Friends, may we do the same. Instead of skipping away with false assumptions, may our hearts rest in the Truth of the One, true miracle.