3:9,10
The people around were amazed at this. They would have seen him there begging day after day, and now he was completely changed. Not surprisingly, they were full of wonder and amazement. We need to recognise that Jesus did many miracles and these attracted attention, similar things happened in Acts. The miracles were not “it”, though many people would focus purely on the miracles themselves, but Jesus, and the apostles, used them as a launch pad for teaching about the kingdom of God.
3:11,12
The miracles were not just for the show, they were not there to draw attention to the apostles, but to draw attention to Jesus. We should also note two other things. Part of the purpose of miracles is to help the person for his own sake, in this case the lame beggar. Jesus talked about setting people free (Lk 13:16). Secondly, while the purpose is to draw attention to Jesus, people will tend to focus on the human instrument, or on the miracle itself. This happened to Jesus, it happened to the apostles, so there is nothing unusual in this, nor does it mean a preacher or ministry is getting it wrong. The key is in one Peter does now. He puts the attention firmly on Jesus. Peter knew full well that the healing of the man was in no way down to his own power or righteousness.
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