If I Be Lifted Up

<p> IF I BE LIFTED UP  In Acts chapter three we saw that Peter and John had prayed for the healing of a well-known crippled man who used to beg daily at the gate of the temple and was now leaping about and praising God. A crowd of onlookers continued to grow with all of them standing about amazed at the miracle that had occurred, and Peter was preaching to the growing crowd about the resurrection of Jesus. Acts 4: 1. While they were still speaking to the people, the priests and the Temple Captain and the Sadducees stormed in. They were offended and worked up that Peter was preaching to the people, and teaching about the resurrection from the dead through Jesus - so they arrested Peter and John and put them in custody until the next day because it was now time for the evening watch in the temple. However, many of the people had already heard the word being preached, and about five thousand people had now become believers (WOW). Then the next morning, the rulers and elders and scribes and Annas the high priest and Caiaphas, and the family group of the high priest came together for a meeting at Jerusalem. They stood Peter and John before them and began to question them. They asked by what power and under whose name or authority had they performed this healing. Peter was full of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and he said; ‘All you rulers and elders of Israel, if this is some investigation into what caused this wonderful thing to happen to this weak and crippled man I want to inform you all, and indeed all the people of Israel, that this man stands before you totally healed today through the power and the authority of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified - and whom God raised up from the dead. Salvation comes through no other person, or through any other name under heaven. Through him alone are we saved.’  When they saw the fearless confidence of Peter and John, who were ordinary looking men and obviously uneducated, they were astonished. They recognized them as being among the disciples of J