Peter addresses the onlookers in the Temple

Acts 3:11-26. Peter’s second sermon to the onlookers after healing the lame man.
Peter speaks to the onlookers, Peter preaches in the Temple.

Peter has just healed a cripple in the Temple. He sees that a crowd is gathering so he takes the opportunity to tell them about Jesus.

Starting with what has just happened and the death of Jesus, Peter explains to the onlookers under whose power and authority the crippled man has been healed and what to do about becoming a believer like Peter and the man who has just been healed.

Peter used what the prophets of Israel had said about Jesus as the basis of his sermon.

Many of Peters hearers could quote from the Prophets and the Torah and Writings so would know if Peter was quoting correctly.

Background Reading:

Peter speaks to the onlookers, Peter preaches in the Temple

3:11 While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people came running to them in what was called “Solomon’s Colonnade”. They were dumbfounded. 12 When Peter saw this, he told the people: “Fellow Israelis, why are you wondering about this, and why are you staring at us as if by our own power or godliness we made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of our ancestors—has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you betrayed and rejected in the presence of Pilate, even though he had decided to let him go. 14 You rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you, 15 and you killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead. We are witnesses to that. 16 It is his name—that is, by faith in his name—that has healed this man whom you see and know. Yes, the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.

17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance like your leaders. 18 This is how God fulfilled what he had predicted through the voice of all the prophets—that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Therefore, repent and turn to him to have your sins blotted out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and so that he may send you Jesus, whom he appointed long ago to be the Messiah. 21 He must remain in heaven until the time of universal restitution, which God announced long ago through the voice of his holy prophets. 22 In fact, Moses said,

‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to everything he tells you. 23 Any person who will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’

24 “Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who followed him, also announced these days. 25 You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, ‘Through your descendant all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ 26 When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your evil ways.”
Acts 3:11-26


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