Saturday, September 26, 2020

The Acts of the Apostles, the history of the early church, by Luke the physician - Acts 3:12-26 comments : Peter expounds on Old Testament prophecies of Christ

 


Acts 3:12 ¶  And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? 13  The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. 14  But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; 15  And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. 16  And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 17  And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. 18  But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 19  Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20  And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21  Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. 22  For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. 23  And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. 24  Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. 25  Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. 26  Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

 

Peter takes this time to witness again for the Lord Jesus Christ to these Jews who are amazed at what has been done. A soul could sin through ignorance without understanding and an important principle is that one was still held accountable for their sins, even those done in ignorance.

 

King David wrote;

 

Psalm 19:12  Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

 

Peter stated that the people and their rulers murdered Christ out of ignorance. As Jesus Himself said from the cross;

 

Luke 23:34   Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

 

Judas acknowledged that he had betrayed innocent blood in Jesus. First, from Psalms;

 

Psalm 94:21   They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.

 

Matthew 27:3  Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,

4  Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.

 

The rulers of the Jews had the opportunity to confess their sin but they would not hear when Stephen confronted them and exposed it to them.

 

Acts 7:52  Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: 53  Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it54 ¶  When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

 

Peter says in verse 19 to repent and be converted. They are synonyms by their usage here. These are, as Paul will say, fundamental doctrines of Christ.

 

Hebrews 6:1 ¶  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

 

Dead works are the sins man commits in the flesh.

 

Hebrews 9: 11  But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13  For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:14  How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

 

Both involve turning to the Lord. God’s forgiveness blots out, erases sin.

 

Psalm 103:12  As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

 

Isaiah 43:25  I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

 

When they stand before Christ, if they repent and are converted, their sins will not determine their eternal destiny. The times of refreshing are when the heavens and the earth are restored to God’s original intent, when a quantitatively and qualitatively new heavens and new earth are created. See verse 21 for the times of restitution of all things.

 

The importance of God blotting out our sins, our transgressions, as we repent of being a sinner and of sinning, being converted to God, should not be understated. It is mankind’s sin that keeps him apart from his Creator.

 

Isaiah 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

 

Notice what Peter says in verses 18 and 24. Peter learned a great deal from Christ which he clearly did not know before he met the Lord. For instance, many preachers like to say that while we look back at the Cross the Jews looked forward to it. This is pure rubbish. Let me repeat what I said regarding chapter 1.

 

One of the common errors of Evangelical Protestantism and Fundamentalism is the belief that the Old Testament Jews were looking forward to the Cross as we look backward to it. It is clear, though, from reading the Bible in context that the Jews did not understand the suffering of their Messiah and knew nothing about the Cross at all.

 

Luke 1:74  That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

 

Luke 1:74 shows that there was an expectation that Christ the Messiah would restore Israel and deliver it from Roman occupation. This expectation persisted even after Christ’s resurrection as shown here in Acts.

This shows how the Fundamentalist doctrine that in the Old Testament the Jews were looking forward to the Cross is wrong. They did not understand Isaiah 53. Their confusion persisted until an eleventh century rabbi nicknamed Rashi developed the idea previously only mentioned by a few that rather than being about a singular man the chapters in Isaiah about the Messiah were actually about the suffering Jewish people as a group thereby totally confusing the Jews with regard to Christ.

Jesus’ Jewish followers literally had no clue what He was talking about when He referred to His impending agony on the Cross or understood anything about His Resurrection.

Matthew 16:21 ¶  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. 22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. 23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

 

Mark 9:9  And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. 10  And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean…31  For he taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. 32 

But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.

 

Luke 18:31 ¶  Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32  For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: 33  And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again. 34  And they understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.

 

John 20:9  For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

 

The Jews, even Christ’s followers, were expecting Him to restore Israel to its former glory. But, He makes it clear that this information is not for them, or us.

 

Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

 

The Lord Jesus Christ showed how the prophecies of the Old Testament connected to Him. In the following in Luke is one instance where He, after His resurrection, expounded on these things.

 

Luke 24:25  Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: 26  Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? 27  And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

 

Our main issue in our heads in life is death. It is a great concern from the perspective of someone possessing biological life. In life we also have concerns about happiness, fulfillment, respect, even being free. But, the real main issue in eternity and in life, the one thing that hangs over our heads, that colors everything else, is our sin. Our sin separates us from our God. Jesus, God in the flesh or the Son of God, living as a man, dying on the Cross for our sins, and being resurrected from death, has removed from us the penalty of that sin, the power of that sin has over us, and one day we will be delivered from even the presence of sin.

 

So, there are two things working in us today. We are saved from the penalty of sin but that would not be enough. It would be an excuse for us to do whatever we pleased to each other and against God because we had a, “get out of jail free,” card, a reference to the board game Monopoly. But Christ has also saved us from the power of sin over us so that we have no excuse for our wicked deeds.

 

1Corinthians 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

 

Hebrews 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

 

For the prophet that Moses spoke of referenced in verse 22 see;

 

Deuteronomy 18:15  The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken…18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. 19  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.

 

By comparing verse 23 here in Acts with Deuteronomy 18:19 we see that the definition of require it of him is to hold someone accountable as Genesis 9:5 shows us as well.

 

Genesis 9:5  And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.

 

The authorities are not going to be happy with this impromptu sermon by Peter.

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