Acts 3 (TFTU)
1 One day Peter and John were going to the Temple courtyard. It was three o’clock in the afternoon, which was the time when people prayed there publicly. 2 There was a man there who had been lame from the time he was born. He was sitting by the gate called Beautiful Gate, at the entrance to the Temple area. People put him there every day, so that he could ask those who were entering or leaving the temple courtyard to give him some money. 3 As Peter and John were about to enter the Temple courtyard, the lame man saw them and asked them several times to give him some money. (OR, The lame man said to them several times, “Please give me some money!”) 4 As Peter and John looked directly at him, Peter said to him, “Look at us!” 5 So he looked directly at them, expecting to get some money from them. 6 Then Peter said to him, “I do not have any money [MTY], but what I can do, I will do for you. Jesus Christ, who was from Nazareth town, has authorized [MTY] me to heal you! So get up and walk!” 7 Then Peter grasped the man’s right hand and helped him to stand up. Immediately the man’s feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped up and began to walk! Then he entered the Temple area with them, walking and leaping and praising God! 9 All the people there saw that man walking and praising God. 10 They recognized that he was the man who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate in the Temple courtyard and ask people for money! So all the people there were greatly amazed at what had happened to him. 11 As the man clung to Peter and John, all the people were so surprised that they did not know what to think So they ran to the two apostles at the place in the Temple courtyard that is called {that people call} Solomon’s Porch. 12 When Peter saw that, he said to the crowd, “Fellow Israelites, ◄you should not be surprised about what has happened to this man!/why are you so surprised about what has happened to this man?► [RHQ] And you should not stare at us, either! You seem to [RHQ] think that the two of us enabled this man to walk because we (exc) ourselves are powerful or because we please God very much! 13 So I will tell you what is really happening. Our ancestors, including Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, worshipped God. And now he has greatly honored Jesus, who always served him. Your leaders brought Jesus to the governor, Pilate, so that his soldiers would kill him. And God considers that in front of Pilate you were the ones who rejected Jesus as your king, after Pilate had decided that he should release Jesus. 14 Although Jesus always did what was right/just and good, you rejected him. Pilate wanted to release him, but you urgently asked Pilate to release ◄a murderer/someone who had killed people►! 15 God considers that you killed Jesus, the one who gives people eternal life. But God has greatly honored him ◄by causing him to become alive again after he died/by raising him from the dead►. Many of us saw him after that, and now we (exc) are telling you about it. 16 It is because we two trusted in what Jesus [MTY, PRS] could do, that he made this man, whom you see and know, strong again. Yes, it is because we (exc) trusted in Jesus that he has completely healed this man for all of you to see.” 17 “Now, my fellow-countrymen, I know that you and your leaders did that to Jesus because you and they did not know that he was the Messiah. 18 However, your putting him to death was what God had predicted that people would do. Long ago he told all the prophets [MTY] to write what people would do to the Messiah. They wrote that the Messiah, whom God would send, would suffer and die. 19 So, turn away from your sinful behavior and ask God to help you do what pleases him, in order that he may completely forgive you for your sins. 20 If you do that, there will be times when you will know that the Lord God is helping you. And some day he will again send back to earth the Messiah, whom he appointed for you. That person is Jesus. 21 Jesus must stay in heaven until the time when God will cause all that he has created to become new. Long ago God promised to do that, and he chose holy prophets to tell that to people. 22 For example, the prophet Moses said this about the Messiah: ‘The Lord ◄your God/the God whom you worship► will cause someone to become a prophet to tell you God’s message. God will send him as he sent me, and he will be from among your own people. You must listen to everything that this prophet tells you and obey him [SYN]. 23 Those who do not listen to that prophet and obey him will no longer belong to God’s people, and God will get rid of them’.” 24 Peter continued, “All the prophets have told about what would happen during the time [MTY] in which we(inc) are living. Those prophets include Samuel and all the others who later also spoke about these events before they happened. 25 You as well as we(exc) are the people to whom God sent the Messiah, as the prophets said [MTY] that he would. And when God strongly promised to bless our ancestors, he also surely promised to bless you. He said to Abraham concerning the Messiah, ‘I will bless all people on the earth as a result of what your descendant will do.’” 26 Peter concluded, “So when God sent to the earth ◄Jesus, the one who always obeys him/his servant Jesus►, he sent him first to you Israelites to bless you. God will enable you to stop doing what is wicked and to start doing what pleases him.”