THE GATE CALLED BEAUTIFUL

Acts 3:1,2 – Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. And a man who had been unable to walk from birth was being carried, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order for him to beg for charitable gifts from those entering the temple grounds.

Everything and every word in the New Testament is intended to point to Jesus Christ. This lame man who is outside the temple in Jerusalem begging is said to be at the gate called Beautiful. What could this gate called Beautiful be talking about other than Jesus Himself. He is the gate or the door that leads us to life, we enter in through Him and our Beautiful life begins. As Solomon said ‘He is altogether lovely’ and David describes Him as ‘Beautiful, beautiful’ in Psalm 45. Christ alone is perfectly beautiful and it is passing through this gate called beautiful that we find life. Here is how Brian Simmons describes this passage.

“‘the gate called Wonderful’ in Aramaic. It is difficult to ascertain which of the many gates of the temple this might have been, and there is varying speculation with no certain conclusion. However, this Beautiful Gate points to Jesus Christ, who is the gate or entrance into the sheepfold of God. Furthermore, it hints of Ezekiel’s temple, which has a river flowing out from the threshold through the gateway of the temple. This river was first measured to be ankle deep. This man, lame in his ankles, was healed by the spiritual “river” that flowed out the “Beautiful Gate” of Christ. The gateway opened up and the river poured out of Peter and John, bringing healing to the lame.”

Jesus told us that He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the gate that leads us into life itself. Before we found Him we are all crippled in one way or another. We were crippled by our sins and the poor choices we have all made in our lives. We were just outside the gate begging for someone to somehow help us and deliver us from our lame way of living. At some point in our life, like the lame man outside the temple, we heard someone say something like, ‘silver and gold I may not have, but what I do have I give to you’. At that moment we saw it for the first time, Jesus is the Beautiful gate and we enter through Him and find life.