Acts 3

1Peter and John were on their way up to the temple for the afternoon prayer at three o’clock. 2Some people were carrying there a man who had been lame since birth. Every day they set him down by the temple gate known as the Beautiful Gate, so that he could beg from the people going in. 3When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he begged them for a gift. 4Peter, together with John, gazed straight at him and said, “Look at us.” 5He kept his eyes on them, hoping they would give him something. 6But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but I will give you what I do have. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” 7Peter took him by the right hand and lifted him up. At once the man’s feet and ankles grew firm; 8he sprang up, stood, and walked about. He went with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. 9Everyone there saw him walking about and praising God. 10They knew him as the man who used to sit begging at the temple’s Beautiful Gate, and they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him.

11As he clung to Peter and John, the whole crowd came running to them in what was called Solomon’s Porch, completely astonished. 12When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: “People of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why fix your eyes on us, as if it were our own power or piety that made this man walk? 13The God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over and rejected him before Pilate, even when Pilate had judged that he should be set free. 14You turned your backs on the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer granted to you as a favor, 15and you killed the Author of life. God raised him from the dead; we are witnesses to that. 16This man you see and know was made strong by the name of Jesus, through faith in that name. The faith that comes through him has given the man perfect health here in front of you all.

17Now, brothers and sisters, I know you did not understand what you were doing, and neither did your rulers. 18Yet by these events God made come true what he had said beforehand through all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer. 19Repent, then, and turn around, so that your sins may be erased, 20that seasons of relief may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send you Jesus, the Christ he appointed for you beforehand. 21Jesus must be welcomed into heaven and remain there until the time when everything is set right again, as God told long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets. 22Moses himself said, ‘From among your own people the Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you, one like me. Whatever he says to you, you must heed him in all of it. 23Every person who refuses to heed that prophet will be destroyed and removed from the people.’ 24And every prophet who has spoken, from Samuel on through those who followed him, has also told of these days. 25You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your ancestors when he said to Abraham, ‘All the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring.’ 26It was for you first that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you, turning each one of you away from your evil deeds.”