Acts 3:11-16 | Exalting Christ

People gathered and ran, staring at what happened, astonished. Luke uses a word, thaumazō, that shows up in the Gospels after every miracle Jesus performs. Astonishment. Wonder. The people of Jerusalem know this man's face. They've dropped coins in his hand and now he's leaping through the temple courts praising God, and they cannot look away. The crowd is not doing anything wrong by being amazed. Their amazement is completely appropriate. A man who could not walk is walking. Wonder is the right response.

But watch what Peter does with it: wonder is not enough. Amazement doesn't come with a label that tells you what it means or where to point it. A crowd can gather around a miracle and walk away not being changed. They can be genuinely astonished and still miss everything and that is exactly the danger Peter sees when he looks out at this crowd running toward him.

They are staring at the wrong person. Its not the wrong event or the wrong response, wonder is exactly right. But their eyes are on Peter and John and Peter will not let that stand for a single moment.

So this morning we are going to watch Peter do something that almost no one in our age of social platform building and personal branding knows how to do. We are going to watch him stand in front of a crowd that is ready to make him famous and redirect every ounce of that wonder to someone else.

Let's stand together in honor of God's Word and read

11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. 12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Our passage begins with a healed man clinging to Peter ande John. Why? It could be that he hasn't moved like that in his entire life and now he is learning that physical exertion can take the wind out of you. R.C. Sproul thinks it's because he got his legs back and he didn't want to let these guys out of his sight. Either way, the word clung means to grasp onto, to take hold of. He is leaning on them and the crowd is gathering so quickly that grown adults are running in the temple complex. Isn't that something? There is such a mighty work of God on display that even the senior saints there are running to see what is happening. There’s no pretense. No sense of decorum. It's just utter astonishment. And it's interesting because the last event recorded in Scripture at this location is in John 10.

Jesus was walking in this same portico and the Jewish leaders surround Him. Their demand is pointed,

24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

They want a declaration, something concrete they can evaluate on their own terms. And Jesus tells them

25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, 26 but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”

When Jesus said this, they picked up stones to kill Him. So when Luke tells us the crowd ran to Solomon's Portico and gathered around Peter and John, he is placing this sermon in a location with a history. The last time a crowd gathered here around a question about Jesus, it ended in an attempt on His life. Now Peter is about to stand in that same place and make the same claim, that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has glorified His servant Jesus and he already knows from personal experience what crowds in this city do when they hear that name, but he preaches anyway.

Exalt Christ With Your Works

And the first thing out of his mouth is not what you would expect from someone standing in front of a crowd this size, this astonished, this ready to listen to anything he says.

12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?

Peter shuts down any thought that it was his work either by his power and piety. He didn’t generate this miracle out of some reservoir of spiritual gifting he carried with him. It wasn’t because of his piety that God owed this to him because of how faithful he had been or how much he had prayed or how many sacrifices he had made. Peter is closing every reason that may lead back to him and John.

R.C. Sproul says Peter was essentially telling the crowd, "It would be amazing if I could say 'rise up and walk' by virtue of my own strength or godliness. Then there would be genuine reason for amazement. But none of you should be surprised at what you just witnessed — had you been paying attention — because when we raised this man we did it in the name of Jesus of Nazareth."

The miracle is not a testimony to what Peter has. It is a testimony to who Jesus is, and if you walk away from this talking about Peter, you have missed the entire point.

I want to be honest with you about something. What Peter does here is genuinely hard for us. Most of us will never stand in front of thousands of people after a public miracle, but the temptation of what he's resisting, that subtle pull toward receiving credit for what God has done through you, that is not unique to apostles. It lives in all of us.

It lives in the pastor who makes his own journey the center of a sermon. It lives in the Sunday school teacher who needs to be known for how well they explains things. It lives in the deacon who quietly notices when his generosity goes unacknowledged. It lives in the worship leader who builds a following rather than a congregation. It lives in every one of us who has ever been used by God in even a small way and felt that pull, even for just a second, to let the gratitude land on us rather than pass through us to Christ.

Peter's instinct here is not false modesty. He is not deflecting credit to seem humble while privately taking it. He is making a theological claim. Whatever you just witnessed had nothing to do with us. If you are pointing your wonder at us, you are pointing it in exactly the wrong direction.

There is also something here for how we think about this church collectively. We are prone to attribute spiritual outcomes to the people and programs most visible to us. The pastor, the staff, the building, the budget, the worship. Listen, those things matter. God works through those means. But they are means, not sources. The moment a church starts believing its own press, and starts assuming that the fruit it sees is the product of its own excellence, it has made the same mistake this crowd is making. It is staring at Peter and John.

God is not building our church on our gifts or our reputation or our programming. He is building His church on His Son, Jesus Christ. And the most faithful thing any of us can do is learn Peter's instinct. Point the wonder somewhere else. But where does Peter point it? That is where we must go next, and I want to warn you, it is not gentle.

Exalt Christ With Your Words

Now Peter opens his mouth and the sermon begins, and what follows is the kind of preaching that could get you thrown in jail for hate speech. John Piper, in his treatment of this passage, points out something worth paying close attention to. He notes that Peter does two things simultaneously across verses 13 through 15. He exalts Jesus in five distinct ways, and he indicts the crowd in four. And the two lists are woven together so tightly that you cannot separate them because every exaltation of Christ becomes another measure of the crime against Him.

Let me show you what I mean,

13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus…”

The first exaltation: Jesus is the Servant of the Lord. That word servant, in Greek is “pais” is not a generic term. Every devout Jew standing in that portico would have heard it and immediately thought of Isaiah 52 and 53. The “ebed Yahweh” The Suffering Servant. The one who was despised and rejected, who bore the sins of His people, who was led like a lamb to the slaughter. Peter is doing compressed Old Testament theology in a word. He is saying: the one Isaiah told you was coming, He came, and God has glorified Him.

The second exaltation: God glorified Him. Past tense. Accomplished. Irreversible. The resurrection and ascension are behind that word. Whatever you thought you did to Him, God has answered it. But watch how Peter immediately turns it,

13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him.

First indictment: you delivered Him up. Second indictment: you denied Him before Pilate. And notice the detail Peter explicitly points out, Pilate had decided to release Him! A Roman governor, a pagan, looked at Jesus and found no basis for execution but you wanted him dead anyway. You were more committed to His death than the man with the authority to make it happen.

14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

Third exaltation: Jesus is the Holy and Righteous One. This is a Messianic title which the demons recognized before the priests did. Back in Mark 1 they cry out, "I know who you are — the Holy One of God." He is not a criminal, or a blasphemer. Jesus is the standard of holiness and righteousness against which everything else is measured.

Third indictment: you asked for a murderer instead. You stood before Pilate and you chose Barabbas. You traded the Holy and Righteous One for a guilty murderer. Man, it is suicidal it is to reject Jesus. They said give us murderers for our streets and for our children, and take away the One who gives life.

15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.

Fourth indictment: you killed Him. After delivering Him, denying Him twice, choosing a murderer over Him, you finished it! And then Peter lands the fifth exaltation. And it is the one I want you to feel the full weight of.

Jesus is The Author of life. The Greek word Luke uses is archēgos. It appears four times in the New Testament. In Hebrews 12:2 it's translated as the founder and perfecter of our faith. In Hebrews 2:10 it's the founder of salvation.

2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

It carries the sense of the one who originates, who blazes the trail, who is the source from which everything flows. The Author of life. Not a contributor to life, or a guide toward life. The originator. The one through whom all life, every heartbeat in that crowd, every breath in that portico, every child born in Jerusalem flows.

John says in his Gospel: "In him was life." Jesus says in John 14: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And here Peter stands in front of the people who pressed for His crucifixion and says you killed the One who gave you the breath you are using right now to stare at me.

Have you ever thought about how the significance of a crime increases in proportion to the office of the victim? The murder of a policeman is a terrible crime. The assassination of a president is a wound to an entire nation. But the murder of the Author of life, the one in whom all life originates… there is no category in human history that contains that crime. It stands alone. And yet, Peter does not stop at the indictment. The last clause of verse 15 is not condemnation but witness: "whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses."

God raised Him! The Author of life could not be held by death and the apostles saw Christ alive with their own eyes. Peter is not passing along a tradition. He is giving firsthand, eyewitness testimony. He was there! He saw Him! Jesus is alive!

This is still the non-negotiable center of Christian proclamation. It’s not a philosophy. Not a moral framework. It is the historical claim that the Author of life died and rose again and is seated at the right hand of the Father and is still acting, still saving, still calling sinners to repent. That is what Peter is about to say, but it begins here, in the middle of the hardest part of the sermon, with a single line that opens a window in the darkness.

He is risen! And that changes everything about what comes next.

Exalt Christ With Your Witness

16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Peter begins and ends this entire verse with the name. He opens with it and closes with it. His name. Faith in his name. The faith that is through Christ. He is not letting anyone in that crowd construct an alternative explanation for what they just witnessed. He is nailing the interpretation down. And the interpretation is this, Jesus’ name did this.

Not a technique. Not a gifted healer. Not the collective faith of a crowd working itself into a spiritual frenzy. A name. The name of a man this crowd watched die on a Roman cross outside the city walls not many weeks before. The name, spoken in faith, is what made a forty-year cripple leap through the temple courts.

Now I want you to notice something about this man's role in his own healing. He did not ask for it. He did not believe for it. Verse 5, told us last week that he fixed his attention on Peter and John expecting to receive money. He was hoping for a coin. There is no indication in the text that he had any faith in Jesus at all in the moment Peter spoke. The grace came first, Jesus’ name was spoken, and then the man was healed.

That is a picture of every person in this room who belongs to Christ. You did not work your way to God. You did not generate enough faith to tip the scales in your favor. The Author of life, the Holy and Righteous One, the Servant of the Lord, He came to you. His name was spoken over you, and the faith that saved you came through Him, not from you. But here is where Peter's sermon becomes our commission.

Peter had something to give this man that no amount of silver or gold could purchase. He had a name and he gave it. He opened his mouth in a portico full of people, in a city that had recently tried to stone the man whose name he was about to speak, and he gave away everything he had. That is what witness looks like.

We do not have apostolic authority. We cannot command a lame man to rise and expect his ankles to strengthen. But we have the same name Peter had, the same risen Christ, the same Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and we live in a world full of people sitting at gates, hoping for coins, completely unaware that what they actually need is the name of Jesus Christ.

Your neighbor is not primarily waiting for your friendship, though friendship matters. Your coworker is not primarily waiting for your moral example, though how you live matters. They are waiting, whether they know it or not, for someone to give them what Peter gave this man. The only name given among men by which we must be saved.

Acts 4:12 is coming. Peter will say it plainly next week. But it is already implied in every syllable of verse 16. There is no other name. There is no other healing. There is no other hope for the person sitting at whatever gate has defined their life. The gate of addiction, the gate of shame, the gate of grief, the gate of religious performance that has kept them near the temple but never inside it. The wonder exists for the word. The word points to the name of Jesus Christ. And His name is yours to give when you believe.

So the question Peter's sermon puts to every one of us this morning is not complicated. It is simply this, are you giving it away?

I want you to see one more thing before we close. John MacArthur points out that this is the second sermon Peter has preached in the book of Acts and he says that both sermons follow exactly the same pattern. Guilt, then grace. Heavy indictment, then an open door.

In Acts 2, Peter told the crowd they had nailed the Son of God to a cross. Three thousand people were converted. Here in Acts 3, the indictment is even more extensive. Five exaltations of the one they rejected. Four counts against them. And the most devastating charge in the history of human language you killed the Author of life. That is where we have been this morning. And it is not a comfortable place to stand.

But Peter is not finished. Next week he will say in verse 17: "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers." And then in verse 19: "Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out."

The most devastating crime in human history, the murder of the Author of life, is forgivable when we trust in Jesus Christ. The same name that straightened a cripple's ankles. The same name that Peter refused to let this crowd aim their wonder past. The same name that is available to every person in this room right now.

That is the Gospel. Not a self-improvement program. Not a moral framework for better living. The Author of life died. God raised Him. And His name, by faith in His name, He saves.

So let me ask you directly. You came in this morning with something on your mind. A need you could name. Maybe it's on our prayer list. Maybe it's something you haven't told anyone, and like the man at the gate, you may have been hoping for something far smaller than what God actually has for you.

Your greatest need is not physical or financial or relational. Your greatest need is the one this man didn't even know he had until Peter took him by the hand and pulled him up. Your greatest need is Jesus Christ. Not His blessings or His help getting through another week. It’s Him.

Come to Him. Repent and believe. And like this man, you will find that what He gives you is infinitely greater than what you came asking for.

Head: God wants you to know that the name of Jesus is the only name by which anyone is saved.

Peter refused to let a crowd aim their wonder at the wrong thing. Know how to recognize when to share the name of Jesus Christ.

Heart: God wants you to believe that the Author of life is alive, that He is still acting, still saving, still calling sinners to repent.

The same Christ who was glorified by the Father after this crowd killed Him is the Christ who is present in this room right now. Believe that He is enough.

Hand: God wants you to give the name of Jesus Christ away.

This week, look for the person sitting at their gate who is hoping for something small, unaware of what they actually need and then give them what Peter gave this man. Open your mouth. Introduce them to Christ. The wonder in your life exists to create the moment. Don't let the moment pass.