3:1 Now {1} Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, [being] the ninth [hour].
(1) Christ, in healing a man that was born lame and well known to all men, both in a famous place and at a popular time, by the hands of his apostles partly strengthens and encourages those who believed, and partly also calls others to believe.
3:1 The First Persecution
SUMMARY OF ACTS 3:
Peter and John at the Temple. The Lame Man Healed. The Wonder of the Multitude. Peter Preaches Christ to Them. The Prophet Like Unto Moses.
Peter and John. These two apostles were very closely associated in the early work of the church. They are often named together.
Into the temple. The Jewish Christians still continued to observe many of the rites of Jewish worship, and, in addition, they preached Christ to the multitudes in the temple courts. It was years before they were fully emancipated from Judaism.
At the hour of prayer. The ninth hour, three o'clock p.m. the hour of the evening sacrifice, when devout Jews were accustomed to gather at the temple to pray. The miracle that follows is one of many (Ac 2:43), but is recorded because it led to the first persecution.
3:1 The ninth hour - The Jews divided the time from sunrise to sunset into twelve hours; which were consequently of unequal length at different times of the year, as the days were longer or shorter. The third hour therefore was nine in the morning; the ninth, three in the afternoon; but not exactly. For the third hour was the middle space between sunrise and noon; which, if the sun rose at five, (the earliest hour of its rising in that climate,) was half an hour after eight: if at seven (the latest hour of its rising there) was half an hour after nine. The chief hours of prayer were the third and ninth; at which seasons the morning and evening sacrifices were offered, and incense (a kind of emblem representing prayer) burnt on the golden altar.
3:1-11 The apostles and the first believers attended the temple worship at the hours of prayer. Peter and John seem to have been led by a Divine direction, to work a miracle on a man above forty years old, who had been a cripple from his birth. Peter, in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, bade him rise up and walk. Thus, if we would attempt to good purpose the healing of men's souls, we must go forth in the name and power of Jesus Christ, calling on helpless sinners to arise and walk in the way of holiness, by faith in Him. How sweet the thought to our souls, that in respect to all the crippled faculties of our fallen nature, the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth can make us whole! With what holy joy and rapture shall we tread the holy courts, when God the Spirit causes us to enter therein by his strength!
