Silver and Gold Have I None

Acts 3:6 But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" The lame man asks for money. He has been asking for money every day at this gate for as long as he has been lame, which has been his whole life.

Peter and John look at him — the Greek says they fixed their eyes on him, gave him their full gaze — and Peter tells him: look at us. Not "look away" or "do not be ashamed." Look at us. See us. Then the honesty: I have no silver and gold.

The apostle is not pretending to be poor for spiritual effect; he genuinely has nothing to give in the category the man is requesting. But what he has is categorically different and categorically more.

In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. The healing is immediate and complete — the ankles and feet are strengthened instantly, and the man does not tentatively test his legs; he leaps.

The first thing he does with his new legs is enter the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God. His posture of worship is itself a testimony: this is not a natural recovery. He goes directly to the source of the healing to offer the praise.

Peter's response to the astonished crowd is equally direct: why are you staring at us, as though by our own power or piety we made him walk? It is the name of Jesus. The pattern of Acts 3 is the pattern of the entire book: the disciples have nothing of their own to offer except the person of Jesus, and that name, spoken in faith, is sufficient for every human need.

The church that has great institutional wealth sometimes struggles to say "rise and walk" — not because wealth is wrong, but because the confidence that comes with resources can substitute for the dependence on the name that actually heals.

The lame man at the Beautiful Gate received what silver could never have bought him, from the hands of two men who had nothing else to give.

The healing at the Beautiful Gate echoes the healings in the Gospels, but it also demonstrates the continuing ministry of the risen Jesus through his disciples. Peter is not acting in his own authority; he is acting in the name of Jesus — as an agent of the one who ascended but who is still at work through his people.

The lame man's healing is itself a fulfilment of Isaiah 35:6, where in the age of the Messiah "the lame shall leap like a deer." The eschatological age that Jesus inaugurated is still proceeding, and the miracles are signs of the kingdom that is coming — previews of the full restoration of all things.

🪞 Reflect on this • What is the "silver and gold" you are most tempted to rely on instead of the name of Jesus — your education, your network, your resources, your reputation? • How does Peter's "look at us" — full attention, full presence — challenge you to give the people around you your genuine gaze rather than a transaction?

• What would it mean to be a church or a person who genuinely has nothing to offer except the name of Jesus — and to discover that this is, in fact, enough? 👣 Take a Step — Give What You Have Identify one person in your life who is asking for something you cannot give — comfort, answers, financial help beyond your means.

This week, give them what you do have: your presence, your prayer, your attention, the name of Jesus spoken over their situation. Prayer: Lord, I confess I sometimes prefer to give silver and gold — things that do not require me to believe anything.

Teach me the confidence of Peter: to have nothing, and to know that the nothing I have in myself is filled by the everything of your name. Let me give what I have, in your name.