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17 “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. 25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.” ~ Acts 3:17-26
Today, we conclude our study of Acts 3 where the Lord Jesus is working in and through His followers in a powerful way. With the conclusion of this chapter comes the conclusion of Peter's second recorded sermon after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. People were being attracted to the Lord through the miracles He is performing through those first century believers. Not only are the people attracted to the message of the gospel, they are repenting of dependency upon themselves and they are believing in the Lord Jesus as their Savior. This is the crux of our every call from the Lord, to be useful and dispensable clay pots for His glory. There is no greater joy than to bring honor to the One who laid down His life for us.
In v.17 of today's passage we read, "Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers."
Previously, Peter informed the gathered crowd of Jewish folks at the outer courts of the Temple in Jerusalem that they were responsible for the murder of the Lord Jesus. It was then that Peter highlighted the fact that they acted out of their ignorance of the identity of the Lord Jesus when they yelled out to Pilate to "crucify Him." The word the Apostle Peter used here translated "ignorance" means "blindly blundering along in darkness." This describes not only those Jews gathered there that day listening to Peter's sermon, it describes everyone who has walked the face of this earth since the Fall. God graciously sent His Son to the earth who said while hanging on His cross, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing."
Anytime we try to run our own lives, we merely demonstrate our ignorance. We do not know what we are doing. It is our pride that leads us to even think that we could make it through this life and beyond without a personal relationship with the Lord. In Ecclesiastes 3:11 we discover that when He made us God placed eternity in our hearts. We all know the endless search in our hearts for meaning and purpose. Augustine said, "Thou has made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they learn to rest in Thee." We long for God, the problem is sin has marred our understanding of what is really real so we find ourselves longing for everything other than Him. Within all of us is a longing for home, there is a call deep within each of us for more than this life can provide. This itch is part of God's plan and is useful to directing us back to Him.
In v.18-24 of today's passage we read, "18 But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 22 For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days."
Here, Peter pulls back the curtain of eternity allowing these people to see the plan of God to redeem mankind from our sin. Our sin placed the Lord Jesus on the cross and we are all guilty of placing Him there. But, God in His grace, has told us over and over throughout the years that His Son would one day come to deal a death blow to sin and death on our behalf. What is required of us is to be humble enough to believe that His death on the cross procured our salvation. And, by the way, for thousands of years the unfolding story of the gospel of Jesus Christ was predicted throughout the Old Testament.
So, the first step toward salvation is repentance. There must come a time in our lives when we recognize our need to turn away from the self life that took over when sin came into this world. The self life is living life with ourselves at the center of our existence. The second step involved in our salvation is that we must come to a change in our evaluation of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is willing to treat any sinner as His Son only if we see our need for the Savior and we trust in Him. In this sermon Peter said, "our sins will be blotted out." This one Greek word translated "blotted out" means "erased." Forgiveness is for anyone who runs to God for refuge through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christianity rests upon facts. In this second sermon of Peter, he provided a series of bullet proof facts that we cannot deny. Facts that were attested by witnesses and can be easily corroborated today. Facts like the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. Then came His resurrection. He was seen up to 12 times after His resurrection in a 40 day period and the fact is no-one refuted these appearances. This is what turned the disciples on a dime from being cowards to dying horrific deaths for their faith in the Living One. Christianity is not a religion of ideas, it rests upon the witnesses who can and have attested to its veracity even in a court of law. This is the way we prove Christianity to be true by declaring certain facts and bringing in certain witnesses to establish them. This is exactly the basis upon which the Christian faith has always rested.
In v.25-26 of today's passage we read, "25 You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.' 26 To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities."
Peter's final point took his hearers all the way back to father Abraham to whom God promised to bless all of the people of the earth with His blessing of salvation through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Sadly, in the first century the Jews had come to believe that God only lived the Jews. This is what the self-life does to us, it makes us self-centered and selfish. Through the cross of His Son God has appealed to us. The covenant He made with Abraham was a covenant of faith. It was our sin that separated us from God. It is the Law of Moses that highlights and magnifies our sin, but it is only the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that can cleanse our sin away. God has promised if we believe in His Son as our Savior we will be forgiven and secured in our salvation.
