Acts 3:12

why marvel at this?--For miracles are marvels only in relation to the limited powers of man. as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk--Neither the might nor the merit of the cure are due to us, mere agents of Him whom we preach.

We have here the sermon which Peter preached after he had cured the lame man. When Peter saw it. 1. When he saw the people got together in a crowd, he took that opportunity to preach Christ to them, especially the temple being the place of their concourse, and Solomon's porch there: let them come and hear a more excellent wisdom than Solomon's, for, behold, a greater than Solomon is here preached. 2. When he saw the people affected with the miracle, and filed with admiration, then he sowed the gospel seed in the ground which was thus broken up, and prepared to receive it. 3. When he saw the people ready to adore him and John, he stepped in immediately, and diverted their respect from them, that it might be directed to Christ only; to this he answered presently, as Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. See Act 14:14, Act 14:15. In the sermon, I. He humbly disclaims the honour of the miracle as not due to them, who were only the ministers of Christ, or instruments in his hand for the doing of it. The doctrines they preached were not of their own invention, nor were the seals of it their own, but his whose the doctrines were. He addresses himself to them as men of Israel, men to whom pertained, not only the law and the promises, but the gospel and the performances, and who were nearly interested in the present dispensation. Two things he asks them: - 1. Why they were so surprised at the miracle itself: Why marvel you at this? It was indeed marvellous, and they justly wondered at it, but it was not more than what Christ had done many a time, and they had not duly regarded it, nor been affected with it. It was but a little before that Christ had raised Lazarus from the dead; and why should this then seem so strange? Note, Stupid people think that strange now which might have been fam…

3:12-26 The evangelistic speeches in the book of Acts focus on Jesus, the crucified and risen Lord. They call people to repentance and faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah and the divinely appointed Judge (2:38; 3:19; 11:18; 17:30; 26:20). They also offer the same Good News for the people of Israel and the Gentile world—“there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all” (10:36).