You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching we may present everyone mature in Christ. Oh Lord we come before you this evening longing to hear, to hear from your word, to be fed spiritual food, and to grow as a result. Lord, would you nourish us now and be with us, open our minds and our hearts to receive and to hear the truth of your word, we pray this evening. In your name, amen. All right, we are in the book of Acts. We are in chapter three. Technically we are in roughly the second half of chapter 3, and I was not going to read the whole chapter, but I think I'm going to read the whole chapter just to keep this in context for us tonight. So we will technically begin in verse 11, but let's start our reading tonight in verse 1. Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the beautiful gate, to ask alms of those entering the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, look at us. And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 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. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. and leaping up, he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and recognized him as the one who sat at the beautiful gate of the temple asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. And when Peter saw it, he addressed the people, Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. And you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. And the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brothers. And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. And all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. May the Lord bless the reading of his word this evening. So just a few observations from this, from this, our section from verse 11 through 26. This second speech that Peter is giving, it continues the themes of God's fulfillment of his promises to Abraham's descendants. the significance of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, and the necessity of repentance and of faith in Jesus as the Messiah who saves. These themes were also present in the first speech. There's a lot in common and there's a lot different between these two speeches. But Peter's speeches both have a consistent focus on Jesus. Note in our passage tonight the inclusion of several titles of Jesus. So we see servant, we see the holy and righteous one, we see the author of life, the prophet like Moses, Messiah, and we see seed or offspring of Abraham. We also had some titles in Peter's first speech. In Acts 2.36, he said that God had made Jesus both Lord and Christ, both of which are titles that he used in that speech. But this second speech that we're in tonight, this second speech focuses on the assertion that the miraculous healing of the lame man demonstrates Jesus' vindication by God as the Holy and Righteous One, in whose name Abraham's descendants are to find salvation by faith. So, listen to these similarities that we have in common before we get into it. These similarities that Acts 2, the speech that's there, and now this speech in Acts 3 have in common, and technically further along in chapter 10 in the speech that is given in the presence of Cornelius and his family and all the people that gather around in Acts chapter 10. These three speeches have in common that Jesus has been killed by the Jews and the Gentile authorities, that Jesus has been raised from the dead by God, and that God offers forgiveness and blessing for those who repent And last and certainly not least, that Jesus' death and resurrection happened as the fulfillment of Scripture. And you'll find all of those things in the three speeches. So let's head into verse 11. So verse 11 says, while he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's. So the question here then, and because we just read this entire chapter, why was this lame man clinging to Peter and John? Was he clinging to them because he couldn't walk properly? Had this miracle failed and he needed to hang on to them? Why was he clinging to them? Why was he clinging to them? Yeah, because they healed him, right? He jumped up, he was running around and praising the Lord, clinging on to them out of joy, out of happiness and gladness that he had been made well. How long had he been lame? Yeah, from birth, right. So then why would all of these people be astounded? Right. Exactly, so if you saw someone who you knew let's say for 40 years that could never walk, and they got up and started running around and leaping for joy at this healing, would you be astounded at that? Would it grab your attention? Well, that's what happens here. It grabs everyone's attention. And at that attention that it garnishes, we see a change in location. When he was healed, they were at the beautiful gate, and now they're headed to Solomon's portico. So Solomon's portico was on the eastern side of the temple complex, and it was most likely the location of daily meetings that the followers of Jesus had. A portico was an open colonnade with a roof over the hall, So it was an open air sort of thing with a roof over it. I saw some pictures, but they were of models, small models, so I didn't think that it would blow up nice enough to show you, but it was quite a large roof over this open space. But tradition holds, though, that Solomon's portico may have been the location, a location that Jesus regularly taught, If you care to flip to John 10, in John 10, 22, it says, at that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter and Jesus was walking in the temple in the colonnade of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly. John 10, 22 to 24. So we see this mention of the colonnade of Solomon as Jesus is walking around in there and the interaction that he had with the Jews. So that is one thing that people point to to say that this was a place where they gathered regularly. But if you look further in Acts, in Acts chapter five, the portico is mentioned again. which potentially is further evidence that it was a regular gathering place. It says in Acts 5, 12, Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles, and they were all gathered in Solomon's portico. So it's entirely possible then on this occasion, as they're changing location from this beautiful gate to Solomon's portico, it's entirely possible that Peter was actually headed there to start teaching the believers, and saw this man, and healed this man along the way. So, Peter may have been, I don't want to say shocked, but shocked at this large throng that gathered at this healing when he was going potentially to go and to teach all of the Christians of that time. But these throngs of people flood around them, and he turns his attention to them. It says that while he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon's, and when Peter saw it, he addressed the people. So he uses this occasion of this healing as they're headed into Solomon's portico. He uses this occasion presented by the miracle that just happened as an opportunity. Similar in some ways to the opportunity he had when what happened on the day of Pentecost, something they had never seen before. And he used that opportunity to explain what was going on at that time, to explain who this Jesus was and all about his life and death and resurrection, and to put in a couple barbs that they're the ones that killed him. to bring conviction to them, he uses this miracle as another opportunity. And this opportunity is to proclaim the good news of Jesus. We see this in verse 12, that when he saw it, when he saw all these people gathering around, he saw this crowd amassing in this portico. And when he saw that happening, he addressed the people. So this is a change in what had been happening. whether this speech is impromptu or not, he sees them gathering around, he turns to address them, and the first thing that he wants to settle is that it was not him that did this. When he says, men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? So Peter sees all this hubbub and all these people amassing, and he wants to dispel any notions whatsoever that they have that Peter and John did this by their own power. This man's clinging to Peter and John, and he does not want these people to think, I did this. And they may have been asking, how did this happen? Who did this? Frank could never walk. making up his name. But it was so astounding that they needed to understand, and Peter was there to explain and to dispel these notions that it may have been happening because of them. What they saw was not an act of Peter or John. It was an act of God. And that's where he's going to put his attention to. So this verb that is used here suggests that the people who recognize the lame man have asked about the cause of the healing. How did this happen? By whom did this happen? So this phrase then that he addressed the people is used to introduce this direct discourse that he's gonna have with them now for the remainder of this chapter. And it's all in a reaction to the people's reaction. So this audience is described here with the term, the people, which refers to the crowds that are assembled at Solomon's portico in the narrow sense. But if you broaden that sense, it could also refer to the entire people of Israel. Because these words that he said in chapter two, and now these words that he's gonna say here in chapter three to them, apply to all of them. to all of these people of Israel in a more broad sense. But the drift of the conversation here is meant to suggest that what the apostles do, they do through the power of the one true God. They're not magicians, they're not pagan holy men, and they're not healers. This was not by their power. But Peter's not satisfied just to refer to God He must also connect this event with what God has done for and in Christ specifically. So he starts then in verse 13, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers. And we can pause there because he's using vernacular that they're familiar with. He's saying these were your fathers, our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is the God of our fathers to relate that this is by whose power this just happened. But then he says that this God glorified his servant, Jesus. whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. So he shifts this very quickly to Jesus, and to Jesus being the glorified servant. Now we'll see, maybe I'm jumping ahead here a little bit, but we'll see that this idea of a glorified servant comes directly from the fourth servant song of Isaiah. and we'll get to that. But in this speech, God's initiative is a major theme. It's God that did this, and the God that you know as the God of your fathers. He's the one that did this, albeit through His servant Jesus, but But they point out, Peter points out here then, in verse 13, God has glorified his servant Jesus. In 15, God raised Jesus from the dead. In 18, God fulfilled his promises in the death of Jesus, the Messiah. In 20, in the beginning of verse 20, God has sent times of refreshing. Later in verse 20, God sent the Messiah. In 21, God spoke about the time of restoration. In 22, God raised up a prophet like Moses. In 25, God made a covenant with their ancestors. In 25, at the end of 25, God will bless the families of the earth through the seed of Abraham. And then in verse 26, God raised Jesus his servant and sent him to the Jewish people first. but hear this phrase that says, glorified his servant Jesus. This is an allusion, like I said, to Isaiah. In Isaiah 52, verse 13, which is the beginning of the fourth servant song, it says, behold, my servant shall act wisely. He shall be high and lifted up and shall be exalted, or you could say glorified. over probably a few pages in Isaiah 55 verse 5. It says, Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you. We'll see this later in the book of Acts, the inclusion of the Gentiles, but because of the Lord your God and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Speaking of Christ, So Peter uses these two key words here from this passage about glorifying his servant to establish who Jesus is and why the miracle of healing the lame man happened. And he makes this clear through these two points that Jesus is the servant of Yahweh from Isaiah's prophecy. And second, that as God's glorified servant, Jesus has the power to do signs and wonders such as the healing of this lame man. And that healing demonstrates that Jesus has been glorified by God. I know in the past when we've spoken of miracles, whether the miracles from the Old Testament in the time of Moses or Elijah or the miracles of Jesus and then of the apostles here, that miracles are used to authenticate the authority of Jesus. And so in the Old Testament, his servants were authenticated through those miracles. The work that God was doing, let's say in Egypt, was authenticated as being God's work. So here we have the authentication of this authority of Jesus, that he was glorified and he was this servant from the book of Isaiah. We hear this in John chapter 8, verse 54, where Jesus says, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me. So Jesus' glorification by God contrasts sharply with his rejection by the Jewish people. As Peter's speech goes on, there's this contrast. They rejected him, God accepted him and glorified him. And we'll see some other contrasts between him being the author of life and them putting him to death. So in verse 13, at the end of the verse, it says, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate when he had decided to release him. But you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. Here Peter starts to present and unfold the facts surrounding Jesus's crucifixion. And once again, just like he did in chapter 2, he's going to indict the people of Israel, saying that they delivered Jesus over. They denied him. They asked for a murderer to be released instead of Jesus. So let's, just to refresh our memories, we're going to flip to two accounts of this. John 19, beginning at verse 6. We'll start reading there. John 19, verse 6. It says, When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, Crucify him! Crucify him! And Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, we have a law, and according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from? But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? And Jesus answers famously, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold your king, and they cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? And the chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. And flip over to the book of Luke, chapter 23, and we'll see this from a slightly different angle. But in these two, you can see their forcefulness at demanding his murder. You can see Pilate seeking to release him. All of these things are things that Peter's mentioning. Surely they would be familiar with this scene from not all that long ago. Luke 23 beginning at verse 13 says, Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers of the people and said to them, you brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod. for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him.' But they all cried out together, away with this man and release to us Barabbas." So Peter, given their familiarity with these scenes, Peter uses this as a clever and providential tool to direct them back, direct their memories back to that, to remember what they had done, to remember what the people and the chief priests and all these leaders had done to this glorified servant from their Old Testament. So as we move on in verse 14, these two adjectives are used, holy and righteous, but they're used with a definite article. This is to show that the holy and the righteous one function as titles. That's why, if you're paying attention, they're capitalized, hopefully, in your Bible. These are titles used for Jesus here. In 1 Samuel 2, it says, there is none holy like the Lord. These titles point to Jesus' personhood as being the God-man. No one is holy like the Lord, but this is calling him the holy and righteous one. Throughout the book of Isaiah, Isaiah often calls God what? The Holy One of Israel, or sometimes the Righteous One. Here in Isaiah 53 again, in verse 11, it says, out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall the Righteous One, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. The same phrasing holds true of Jesus and these titles throughout the New Testament, further continuing to identify him as God. Later in Acts, in chapter 4, verse 27 and 30, the Jerusalem believers call Jesus God's holy servant. In 1 John 2.1, It says, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. And don't stop there. Jesus Christ, the righteous. So he goes on then to say in verse 15, he's just sort of piling these things on to point out that Jesus was God, the God of our fathers. And now he goes on to say, and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead, to this we are witnesses. So here we see another title for Jesus, the author of life. And Peter ties this directly with Jesus's resurrection. The irony here though is that these people killed Jesus, and he's calling him the author of life. So how could someone kill the one who authors life itself? Hopefully they're wondering that as they hear this. I think they are, given the reaction that we'll see them have next week. But how could we have killed the one who authors life? Well, technically, They couldn't because he was raised to life again, as Peter just says here in verse 14, or 15 rather. But further to all of that, Peter says that we are witnesses of Christ being raised. Now do you remember all of the circumstances, especially as we studied the book of Matthew, where people saw the resurrected Jesus. Actual witnesses to him being risen again. So you remember, who were the first people that went to the tomb? The women. So the women that went to the tomb, they saw Jesus resurrected. And he said with some urgency, go to my disciples and tell them to wait. Wait for me there. So then he also appeared to all of his disciples on many occasions. In the book of Luke, you remember the two men that were headed to Emmaus, the road to Emmaus? He appeared to them as well in one of the best conversations I think that anybody had with him, where he explained and opened up the scriptures pointing to all of what Peter is going to say here in the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And then even further, to all of these people who have already seen him as witnesses of his resurrection, in 1 Corinthians it says, he appeared to more than how many brothers at one time? Anybody remember? 500. He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. So we're not gonna do the math on all of that tonight, but it's a lot of people that actually saw the resurrected Christ. And Peter says, of this, we are witnesses. In Acts 10, verses 39 to 41, Peter's speaking to the Gentile crowd at Cornelius' house. another speech of Peter's, but he says on that occasion, And we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. But God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead." So even in this later speech to the Gentiles at Cornelius' house, he's mentioning these same things, that they were witnesses of what had happened. Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 15, which we'll get to pretty soon on a Sunday morning, He says in 15 verses 5 and 6, well, I'm going to read from verse 1, but it says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep." So many people were witnesses to Jesus' resurrection. And I think we don't give that enough attention. that they saw firsthand, He was alive again." Now there's a, in verse 16, a little subtle shift, a bigger shift will come later, but 16 says, and His name, that is Jesus' name, by faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all." Peter's now going to further explain why this man was healed. And it was not because of his power or John's power, as we mentioned earlier. It was because of God's power, but even more than that, because of Jesus, specifically faith in Jesus' name. The healing of the lame man has been caused by the name of Jesus. And when you hear the name of Jesus, it doesn't just mean literally the name. Right? It's the power that is in the name of Jesus. By everything that is contained in his name. Faith in his name. This healing came through his name. Now, it's very unclear whether or not this verse specifically speaks of Peter's faith or the faith of the lame beggar. just in the way that it says, by faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. But the latter seems more plausible, that it was the lame beggar's faith. Even if the words aren't quite as clear as you would like to see that it was his faith. But if you look ahead to Acts chapter 14, verse 9, Paul actually heals a crippled man who was crippled from birth. And in 14.9, it says that he listened to Paul speaking, and Paul, just like Peter, looking intently at him, at this lame man, and seeing that he had faith to be made well. So the man had faith in this occasion in chapter 14. And likewise, I would say that this lame beggar had the faith to be made well, just like this one in chapter 14. That whole account is strikingly similar to the one that we have here in chapter three. But also, the fact that the healed beggar from the beautiful gate leaps and jumps and praises God, it says, after his healing. in chapter 3, verse 9, it suggests that Peter may have spoken to him about faith before he commanded him to stand up. And after seeing that he believed that Jesus could heal him, he was healed. That's a pattern that we see often in Acts. But regardless, it's not Peter's faith that makes this man well. And it's not, don't get confused at it saying, and the faith that is through Jesus, it wasn't Jesus' faith, it was the man's faith that Jesus' name, that Jesus would make him well. In this intense staring contest that they had when he was commanded to stand up. But the point is that the faith in Jesus' name was the cause of this miraculous healing. So God, earlier God, the God that they know as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's God, God raised this man, but through faith in Jesus, this was the cause of this miraculous healing. Peter reiterates that the people cannot deny that a miracle has happened, because he says that they know him, and that they see him. There's a familiarity, and he points this out, that this guy that was healed and walking and jumping and praising God, they knew who he was. They had seen him all the days and all the trips that they would take to the temple. They would see him there. And it even says at the very end of 16, that this man was given perfect health in the presence of you all. So they all clearly saw what had happened and clearly saw that this man was in perfect health. They can't deny this healing. And if you follow that line of logic, they can't deny that God did this and they can't deny what Peter is going to be telling them about Jesus So in verse 17, he goes on, and now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. So this part in verse 17 marks the second part of Peter's speech because now he calls them brothers. Earlier it was the people, he addressed the people, and now he's addressing them as brothers, further cementing their kindred, Israeli commonality, I guess you could say, but he begins to bring this speech home to its culmination. This is this turn in the second part of the speech. He's now gonna draw the consequences from the reality of Jesus' death and resurrection. Now, it says that they were ignorant. They were ignorant of the fact that Jesus' death was a central event in God's plan of salvation. They were ignorant of who Jesus was, ignorant that he was all of these titles that Peter's laying out, that he was this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was the holy and the righteous one. He was the author of life. He was the servant spoken about in Isaiah. And in this idea of ignorance, Acts chapter 13 verse 27 says, for those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, they fulfilled this prophecy by condemning him. So they did not recognize him nor understand the utterances of the prophets. Later in Acts 13 it says, in Acts 17, in a more general sense, it says, the times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. This idea of ignorance isn't something that they can't get over, but it is something that he wants to point their attention to. You didn't know. You didn't know who he was. You didn't know what was going on. You didn't know this was part of God's plan. Although, technically, they're held to account for this ignorance. They were ignorant about it. They did not understand the scriptures. If you remember, Jesus prays on the cross at the end of the book of Luke, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. In verse 18, Peter goes on to say that, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He thus fulfilled. So we see again this suffering, which connects back again to Isaiah, to the suffering servant, further identifying Christ as that suffering servant, and that all of the prophets had foretold of this, and he was the fulfillment of that. This technically continues what Luke already began in the book of Luke. We talked about the road to Emmaus, on that road to Emmaus, he made very clear to those two men. He said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Luke's already given this idea to us in his first book, He goes on then even further in chapter 24. He said to them, Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." And this is precisely what's happening, beginning in Jerusalem, here in Solomon's portico. This is what's being proclaimed. In Acts chapter 2, you even remember that Peter had already talked about prophecy from David. He calls David a prophet from Psalm 16, saying that he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ beforehand. All of these things were laid out in the Old Testament to them. Peter asserts here that God has now fulfilled these promises in this way. In what way? through Jesus's death on the cross and in his resurrection. But this death of Jesus was not arbitrary or merely the result of the tragic ignorance of the Jews of Jerusalem. It was fulfillment of something that had been determined long, long before this time. But finally, we get to verse 19. This is where he hits him with it. Repent, therefore, and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. So up until now, he just layers and layers on all of these things that they should know or should have known, lays out who Jesus is, and hits them with repent. He's laid all this groundwork up until now that this healing did not take place because of Peter or John, but faith in Jesus' name, Jesus whom the prophets had foretold, who was killed by the Israelites, Jesus who was truly God, the God of their fathers, the holy and righteous one, the author of life. And what should they do with that? They should repent. He commands them now, repent for your sins. But make a note though that the ignorance that Peter had talked about in the previous verse, it doesn't eliminate the necessity of repentance. They're still held accountable for what they had done. Their ignorance is no excuse. Regardless of their ignorance, they're still culpable for Jesus' death. And not only that he pointed that out to them, but all of their sins. It says that your sins may be blotted out, not just the sin of crucifying the Lord, which they did, and which is the mechanism that he's using here to point attention to this and bring them low before hitting them with repent. But this ignorance doesn't negate the fact that they were responsible Jesus is the focal point of Peter's message here, as well as in chapter two, but the crux of that message and this message is repent. If you remember in chapter two, after Peter's speech, the brothers, they asked what? What shall we do? They were cut to the heart, it said, and asked, what shall we do? And Peter's response? Repent and be baptized. Every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I'm getting short on time here, but the verb repent, hopefully everybody understands that repentance is a turning away and a turning to. That is the whole idea of this verb, repent. Turning away from the way of life that is characterized by disobedience and ignorance, and turning to a new way of life controlled by faith and obedience to God. Verse 20. Well, I'll read it with 19, repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. So these times of refreshing that are mentioned, they are a result of repentance and faith. repent and believe, be baptized, and then you will have times of refreshing. Not only will your sins be blotted out, as he mentioned, but you will experience times of refreshing. What in the world does that mean? This expression, times of refreshing, has no other parallel anywhere in biblical literature. But we can figure this one out. The noun translated as refreshing is defined as experience of relief from trouble. And it can also be translated as breathing space, relaxation, or relief. Now if you think back to chapter two, or even stick your finger in chapter two, verse 38, it suggests in a parallel sort of way with this, with three, 19, and 20, that the period of refreshing is the time when the Holy Spirit is bestowed on God's people. In 238, it speaks of repentance and baptism. In 19 and 20, it speaks of repentance. In 238, it speaks of the forgiveness of sins. And in 19 and 20, it speaks of your sins being blotted out, forgiveness of sins. In 238, it speaks of the bestowal of the Holy Spirit at the end of that verse. and in ours it speaks of times of refreshing. So this parallelism correlates to what Luke has already written so far in Acts chapter one and two about the gift of the Holy Spirit that believers receive upon conversion. This is what these times of refreshing are speaking of, this gift of the Holy Spirit to believers, this coming of the Holy Spirit to all who repent It brings about breathing space, relaxation, and relief. What kind of relief does it bring? This time of refreshing, it brings peace. It brings relief from sin, from the world, the flesh, and the devil. The same way, it's parallel to the Holy Spirit bringing that to them, this time of refreshing. As we move to 21, it says, whom heaven must receive until the time of restoring all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. I do not have a lot of time to nitpick this one, but a lot of people nitpick over whether this has the future in view or the present in view. The time for restoring all things. But just some quick comments about that. Often the Bible is not referring to one specific thing. It can be referring to two or more things as fulfillment. You see this with prophecy. You see an immediate fulfillment and you see a later fulfillment of something. So this whole idea of the restoring of all things technically is both present and future, their present and the future. Things are being restored. The kingdom of God has come, and it is gonna grow and grow and grow, and we're gonna see that throughout the book of Acts. That's the present view of the restoring of all things. And then there's the future view of restoring all things when he returns again. Both of those things are in view with this phrase, the restoring of all things I had examples of this. Maybe I won't use them all, but even just consider this one, since it has to do with Matthew. Hosea 11.1 says, when Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. Did that apply to then? Or did that apply to something later down the road? Where does that verse show up in the New Testament? Matthew chapter two, verse 15. It applied to Jesus. being taken to Egypt as a baby and then later returning to Israel from Egypt. It says that they remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son. But he also called Israel out of Egypt. It's not talking about one thing. It can be talking about multiple things. So this here in this verse, the times for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets is both happening then and will happen in the future. We saw the same thing in chapter two when he refers to Joel chapter two. That whole quote from Joel, he says, this is fulfilled in what you're hearing and seeing today with the coming of the Holy Spirit. But then at the end of that, it says signs in the heavens and the earth below and blood and fire and vapor and smoke and the sun turning to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord. It's talking about both things, the here and the now that they saw and later to come. So anyway, I don't want to belabor that, but this idea of the restoring of all things has to do with God's kingdom growing and being restored here in what you could call, I'll put it in quotes, the gospel age, spreading and spreading. How many people came to faith at his first speech? And then after this one, I don't want to spoil it for next week, but I believe it says another 5,000. 5,000 men. 5,000 brothers. So let's move on. Hopefully you're familiar with this aspect of what he's saying here. Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. Where have we heard this reference from? Where does this come from? It's another appeal to the Old Testament, all the way back in Deuteronomy. It says in Deuteronomy 18, 15, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. And not to go back to Matthew again, but it's also mentioned in Matthew on the Mount of Transfiguration when he was still speaking, there was a bright cloud that overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased, listen to him. This is the correlation between this prophet like Moses finally having arrived being put to death and being raised again. But Peter's just using another Old Testament reference to point to Jesus. This is how he continued to resonate with them. Remember Peter's first speech, he used David, he used Joel, now he's using Moses and he's loosely using Isaiah. Further to all of these Old Testament references, Peter says then in verse 24, and all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and those who came after him also proclaimed these days, which is another reason why we would interpret the times of refreshing and the restoring of all things to these days. They spoke about these days. In the early days of the expansion of the gospel, the apostles regularly employed Old Testament examples to point to and reference Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, so that that would resonate with them. They knew these Old Testament scriptures. And he points this out even further then in verse 25. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Now Galatians 3.16 makes clear that Abraham's offspring is Jesus. It says, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, and to offsprings, it's not plural, referring to many, but referring to one. And to your offspring who is Christ, Galatians 3.16. You could also read Romans chapter nine to see more references to Abraham's offspring, ultimately being Christ, and also then those who believe and have faith in Christ being Abraham's offspring. Verse 26, let's end with this one, because we have to. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. I'll just say from the start, it is not talking about every single one of them. It's not talking about universalism, that they are all gonna be saved from all their wickedness. Carte Blanche, the ones who believe, the ones who have faith. He already spoke about that, the ones who repent. But if you remember in Acts chapter one, when the disciples were commissioned, it said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses, where? in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." This message of Jesus as the Messiah, as God incarnate, who came to Israel and was murdered by them, and then raised back to life. This is the message that came first to the Jews. In this commission, it was supposed to start there, and it was going to branch out and spread to the rest of the world. And this is exactly what occurred, just as Jesus commanded. They're starting in Jerusalem, and then they will move outward as we move through this book of Acts. I won't go ahead into Acts. I was going to go into Paul's calling to be the apostle to the Gentiles. But this message continues to go forth and spread and spread and spread, and it continues even still to this day to spread. This is why Paul asserts in Romans 1.16, the gospel's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. To who first? And then also to the Greek, who are the Gentiles. So at the very end of this very last verse, It says, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. He's circling back in a roundabout way, a subtle way, to repentance. Turning back. Turning them away from their wickedness. So repent, believe, turn in faith to Christ, to his name, and you will be saved from your wickedness. That's what this is saying. And as a result, 5,000 people will be cut to the heart, just like they were in chapter two. But the question for us is, have we repented, believed, turned to faith in Christ, away from wickedness, to be saved from our wickedness? When it speaks of blotting out our sins, it's the idea of a papyrus paper, and it's just being erased. blotting it out. That's the idea of this blotting, that your sins would be as far as the East is from the West. But this message is still the same message today. This message that started with them in this time, it's the same exact message for us, and it's the same exact message for all who we come in contact with. Repent Maybe we can't directly say, you killed Jesus like he did to them then, but we would have. We like to think that we wouldn't have if we were there, but what makes them any different than us? What makes us any different from them? Getting caught up in all of the hubbub of all of that day. and just screaming for Him to be crucified. Give me a murderer instead. We would be saying the exact same thing lest we repent and turn and believe and have faith in Christ and the power of His name. If you have not done that, I urge you, this is the Jesus that we know and that we see in God's word, and we need to turn to him in faith and repentance. So why don't we pray? Lord, we are so thankful for the clarity of your word, so thankful for the work of Christ on our behalf. Lord, none of us, none of us could muster up this salvation on our own. None of us do good, not even one. Lord, we would have been screaming along with these Israelites that you should be murdered. But Lord, we thank you for your plan of salvation, the plan that they were ignorant of. But Lord, this ignorance is over. It is now clear through your word. It's clear through this record of your Christ, the Messiah who saves sinners. Lord, we just pray that we would all be cut to the heart when we read all of these accounts. That, Lord, we would turn if we have not turned. And if we have, Lord, that you would continue to build up our faith in the one our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. Lord we just pray that you would be with us that you would build us up by your word as we go forth from here and come back together again on Sunday we pray in your name. Amen.