Bible Studies for Life By Jeffery M. Leonard, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Religion, Samford University
Unstoppable Opportunities
Acts 3:1–10
One of Jesus’ most famous parables is the story of the Good Samaritan. As Luke recounts Jesus’ telling of the parable, he recalls a time when Jesus was asked what a person must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers by joining together two passages from the Torah: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength,” (Deut. 6:5), and “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). It is at this point that Jesus’ clever inquisitor asks a follow-up question: “Yes, but who is my neighbor?” The story of the Good Samaritan is Jesus’ answer to this important (if impertinent) question.
Although the parable of the Good Samaritan may be quite familiar to us, an important turn of phrase in the story merits particular attention. The question that prompted Jesus to tell the parable was, “Who is my neighbor?” Yet, as Jesus finishes the parable, He twists the question, asking, “Which of these three was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
Jesus does not directly answer the question of who our neighbor is. Instead, He forces His hearers to consider to whom they ought to be neighbors. In Jesus’ mind, loving one’s neighbor is not just a passive acceptance of others but an active attempt to meet the needs of those who are hurting. It was this sort of outreach that Jesus modeled in His own life and which Jesus’ disciples would imitate in the book of Acts.
See the opportunity your intersections with people provide. (1–4)
As Luke sets the scene in Acts 3, Peter and John are headed up to the temple one afternoon for the time of evening prayers.
On this trip to the temple, though, the disciples encounter a man who had been lame from birth and whose disability had reduced him to begging for alms as worshippers went in and out of the temple gates. He asked the same of Peter and John when they passed by.
Share the love of Christ through those encounters. (5–8)
It might have been tempting for the disciples to just keep walking. After all, they were on their way to an important place (the temple) at an important time (evening prayers) for an important purpose (worship).
But to keep on walking would have been too much like the callous religious personnel in the story of the Good Samaritan. Perhaps with the words of their Teacher still ringing in their ears, Peter and John knew they had to stop.
As Peter fixed his gaze on the man, the beggar naturally expected to get a few coins from him. Peter’s gift was much greater than that, however. “I have no silver or gold,” he said, “but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”
One encounter often leads to more opportunities to share Christ. (9–10)
The immediate effect of Peter’s gift was evident as the man stood up and began to walk and leap about, praising God as he did so. An even more powerful effect would flow out of this initial gift, however.
As the healed man praised God, the message of the God who had healed him spread far beyond the gates of the temple. Countless other people heard about what had happened and heard about the Savior in whose name the disciples had acted.
Their act of neighborliness, their willingness to reach out to one who was hurting, became the channel through which many others would be touched as well.
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