The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant, Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.  (14) But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, (15) and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. (16) And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.  Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.   (17) Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers.  (18) But these things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.  (19) Repent Therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord

The acts of the apostles was written by Luke and is a history of the early church of Christ Jesus.  In our verses today, Peter and John were going to the temple in Jerusalem to pray when they were asked for alms by a crippled man (crippled from birth), who was laid daily at the gate of the temple.  Peter blessed the man in the name of Jesus Christ and helped lift him up and he was healed – not just healed but leapt about, dancing and praising God.  This man with his lifelong disability was well known to the community and the people were astounded at what happened.  Peter then spontaneously addressed the crowd asking why they looked so amazed at the miraculous healing and disavowed any healing powers on the part of man – he, Peter, was just the conduit for God’s works.

This was the occasion for the second powerful sermon by Peter recorded in Acts.  And this from an uneducated fisherman from Galilee who just a short time before had not only denied Jesus Christ publicly, he had fled in terror from the scene of the passion of Christ.  Now we are told that he spoke full of the Spirit with all boldness and power.  He used this miracle to reprove the Jews for the horrible sins they had committed in putting the Christ to death   and rejecting God.

Now, with authority,  Peter tells them that in faith in Christ the cripple was healed.  And that this was done in their presence and could not be denied. This miracle was the foundation for his sermon preaching the gospel for the gospel can’t be proclaimed unless it begins with Jesus; who He is and what He has accomplished. That Christ willingly died for us as the only perfect and acceptable offering to God for the forgiveness of sin and that Christ Jesus was then raised from the dead and ascended into heaven.  This is the central fact of Christianity.

In verse 17 Luke records that Peter basically then offered hope of God’s mercy to those who respond and repent.  Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, and eternal life is promised to those who believe.  Jesus will return again to fulfill God’s promises and also to judge those who reject the gospel.  The good news is not appreciated unless people know the bad news.