Walking, and leaping, and praising God

In this episode in the ministry of the apostles, it has been pointed out that the lame man in this chapter, after asking for alms, got legs instead. Indeed, he did! He was surprised by joy and his spiritual enlightenment and the abounding joy serve as a prototype of every conversion to Christ. It reminds us of the way that God can use us in the salvation of precious souls, Mark 16. 20.

Firstly, as another has noted, there was lameness. Here was a man in desperate need, whose condition was keenly felt and clearly seen. Poor fellow! He was a forty-year old beggar who had been that way for a long time, with no resources or relatives to give him aid, Acts 4. 22. His lameness only highlighted his helplessness and pictures the spiritual inability of all mankind to walk in the ways of God. The persistency of his condition underscores the impotence of organized religion and any effort apart from Christ to meet that need.

With the sense of need however, came a look. Peter, fixing his eyes on him, with John replied, ‘Look on us’, v. 4. The two were not indifferent to the need that was within their reach. The man, expecting to receive some monetary gift, looked back. Like the woman at the well, his focus was on the material plane. But these servants’ focus was on the spiritual. Just as Israel felt her need through the venom of a serpent, Num. 21, requiring a look to be healed, so this man’s healing began with a look.

Next, we see something very indicative of this dispensation of grace. Reaching down, Peter took him by the right hand and gave him a lift. It is the work of grace in the life of a Christian, seeking to help another soul in need. The command given is to ‘rise up and walk’, but the means by which this comes is through the hand that reaches down to help, following the pattern of the Hand that reached down to us in grace, Titus 3. 4, 5.

The leap along with the walking and praising was simply the outcome of an encounter with God. For him, it was the joyful, public, and audible testimony of a life that had once been bound but was now loosed and set free by God’s grace.