The Second Sermon of Peter – part 2
Acts 3:1-26 (17-21)
April 1, 2012
Last time we met we saw God at work again
In this mighty venture of growing His church.
It is impossible to study the things occurring in the book of Acts
And come to the conclusion that man grows the church.
It really is amazing to me the amount of emphasis that is placed upon
Things like cultural relevance, drawing crowds, and being trendy.
What is even more shocking is that those things are emphasized
While things like gospel accuracy really take a back burner.
And yet Paul said:
Galatians 1:8 “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!”
If we have learned anything thus far in the book of Acts
It is that things like drawing a crowd, or having cultural relevance
Are not our priorities.
Beyond that, I’m not even sure they are our duties.
It has been God who has taken care of all of that.
• It was the Holy Spirit who came with the sound of a rushing wind and drew
the first crowd.
• It was the power of God to heal a cripple and his sudden change that drew
the second one.
All we find the church focused on is seizing the opportunities
With boldness and faithfulness when the opportunities arose.
And that is certainly what has happened here again.
• Peter and John were headed to the temple during the hour of prayer when they were confronted by a cripple.
• This man was no fool, he knew that the best times to receive financial help would be when people are either entering or leaving church.
• And so he turns to Peter and John and asks for money.
• (6) “But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene – walk!”
• Of course that man was instantly and perfectly healed, and when he entered the temple leaping and praising God it obviously drew a crowd.
• From there Peter stepped up to the plate once again.
We call it the second sermon of Peter.
We saw the first part last Sunday night.
#1 – THE EXPLANATION (12-16)
The people were shocked and Peter wondered why.
It certainly wasn’t done by his power.
It certainly wasn’t done by his piety.
There was in reality a very good explanation
As to why this man could walk.
(13a,16) “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus…And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.”
The simple explanation as to why this man can walk is that
God is still in the business of glorifying His servant Jesus.
• He glorified Jesus while He was on earth by granting Him power to
perform miracles,
• He glorifies Him still by granting that these same miracles be done in
His name.
This man can walk because God is glorifying Jesus.
It isn’t humanitarian…
It isn’t solely about compassion…
It is all because God seeks to glorify Jesus.
And incidentally this exactly what the Holy Spirit would do when He came.
John 16:14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
And that was the explanation.
But by now we know that a simple explanation is never enough for Peter.
He isn’t just in to telling the people what they want to hear,
He also tells them what they need to hear.
And so Peter also included what we called an
“Oh, by the way…” statement.
Peter mentioned Jesus and then said:
(13b-15) “the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.”
It wasn’t enough for Peter to simply explain the situation,
Peter also felt the need to confront their sin.
And so if you are counting Peter has now preached two public sermons
And in both of them he has directly confronted his listeners
For their sin of rejecting God’s Messiah.
So to sum up Peter’s explanation it would go something like this.
This man can walk because God raised up the Jesus you killed
And since God is still determined to glorify Him.
This man was actually healed in His name.
That is the explanation.
Now let’s move into the next portion of Peter’s sermon
The Explanation
#2 THE EXPECTATION
Acts 3:17-21
Not only is Peter more than willing to confront sin,
Peter is also ready to share what they should do.
(And just because it is on my heart…)
I’ve had several conversations over the past few weeks
With some other religious leaders,
And it is concerning to me how this notion of “certainty”
In regard to truth is under attack.
If you’ll allow me a moment to define the terms;
1) MODERNISM
This is actually a view on the way out, but still holds root with some,
And I actually ran up against it recently.
(This was what Adrian Rogers and the SBC fought in the 70’s & 80’s)
Modernism stems from a worship of ones intellect.
For those reading the MacArthur sermons on the Holy Spirit, he talked about this actually calling it “rationalism”.
It was the idea that because man is so smart
(as evidenced by his accomplishments)
That he now can pass everything through the filter of his mind.
The fall out was that instead of man testing his thoughts by Scripture,
Man began to test Scripture by his thoughts.
The mind of man became sovereign and began to evaluate the accuracy of Scripture instead of the other way around.
Paul said:
2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,”
Paul said we judge our thoughts by the authority of Scripture
We don’t judge Scripture by the authority of our thoughts.
But modernism took hold,
And the RELIABILITY of Scripture was under attack.
“You can’t use the Bible in addressing humanity because it is not reliable, you must go to the intellect for all the answers of this life.”
2) POST-MODERNISM
We now live in what is called a “Post-modern” culture.
And post-modernists are the ones who have resisted modern thinking.
Namely the idea that anyone could actually be right about anything.
(and this includes Scripture)
A recent quote I heard which reflects post-modern thinking was this.
A man quoting another preacher who said, “In my sermon 1/3 of what I’m about to tell you is wrong. The only problem is I’m not sure which 1/3 it is.”
And people actually like that and see it is some sort of humility.
And that type of thinking is embraced by the culture today.
And so while Modernism attacked the RELIABILITY of Scripture.
Post-Modernism attacks the RELEVANCE of Scripture.
“You can use it, but let’s not get too dogmatic about it.”
I tell you all that simply to show you that Peter embraced neither.
Peter didn’t’ go to his own intellect for truth,
And when Peter found truth he did not mind enforcing it.
In these verses notice how direct, how adamant, how certain,
How convicted Peter is of exactly what these people did wrong,
And of exactly what they need to do.
Such confidence today is portrayed as arrogant, and yet it is necessary.
Paul told Timothy:
2 Timothy 2:2 “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”
There is a certainty to what he is teaching.
There is a certainty about what he is proclaiming.
After all:
1 Timothy 3:15 “but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”
• We are not the “birthplace of assumption”
• We are not the “institute of speculation”
• We are not the “center or recommendation”
• We are “the pillar and support of the truth.”
The idea is that we are certain about what we proclaim.
We preach and teach with confidence and conviction
Based upon the truth revealed in Scripture.
Paul told Titus:
Titus 2:15 “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”
These men had the truth.
They did not discover it in the depths of the human mind,
It was revealed to them by God.
And once they found the truth, they did not question it,
They boldly and adamantly proclaimed and enforced it.
In a world that says we can’t do such things
I just wanted to get that off of my chest.
Look here as Peter gives his EXPECTATION
To these people who killed the Lord Jesus.
The first thing we will notice is that while Peter is ADAMANT,
He is also COMPASSIONATE.
He understands that the purpose of the gospel is
To save sinners, not destroy them.
(17) “And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also.”
Did they kill Jesus? Yes
Was that a heinous crime? Yes
But Peter knew they did so with a measure of ignorance.
Even Jesus said:
Luke 23:34 “But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 2:8 “the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;”
In fact Paul even said of himself:
1 Timothy 1:12-13 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief;”
It doesn’t excuse their crime, but it does explain it.
And Peter says this as if to say, “Look you messed up, but I want to offer you a little hope here. God is not such a tyrant that He has closed the book on you. There is still hope.”
You killed Christ in ignorance.
(18) “But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.”
Peter actually says two things that need to be recognized there.
1) The suffering of Christ was part of the predetermined plan of God
2) That plan has been fulfilled
We know that in order for salvation to occur,
The Christ had to suffer and die.
(Jesus taught that to His disciples in Matthew 16)
Hebrews explains this quite well.
Hebrews 2:5-9 “For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. But one has testified somewhere, saying, “WHAT IS MAN, THAT YOU REMEMBER HIM? OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT HIM? “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAVE APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS; YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET.” For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.”
The writer of Hebrews points out that man was supposed to have dominion, but he presently does not.
That is why Jesus had to die, to redeem man from the curse of sin
By tasting death for everyone.
He would go on to say:
Hebrews 2:14 “Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”
The point is that the Christ had to die.
And God “announced [this] beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets”
• We don’t have to go again into Psalm 22
• We don’t have to go again into Isaiah 53
Now again, that does not excuse those who killed Him.
Their crime is still heinous and they still bear the guilt.
It is just that their crime did not surprise God,
He knew it was coming and even in the depths of His sovereignty
Used their rebellion to fulfill His perfect plan.
But the suffering of the Christ was part of the predetermined plan of God.
But the other thing Peter reveals is that that plan has been “fulfilled”.
In other words: The suffering is done
The suffering is over
His suffering and death where necessary before He could reign,
But that’s been accomplished and all that’s left is for Him to reign.
People talk a lot today about prophecy and end times events and what must be fulfilled before the end, and so on and so forth.
But in reality from God’s perspective
There was only one thing that had to occur before Christ could reign
And that is He had to die and be raised.
His death had to precede His reign.
And that has already occurred.
BUT – there is still one more thing (from man’s side)
That still needs to occur.
And that is where Peter goes next.
(19-21) “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
Again, there is a mouthful.
Now you will notice that Peter uses some very important terms or phrases
That help us understand the passage.
(19) “times of refreshing”
(21) “the period of restoration”
It is important that we understand what Peter is talking about.
Many will read this passage and just assume that Peter is talking about
The inevitable refreshing of spirit after one is saved.
That Peter is saying, “If you’ll just repent and return to Christ then He will come into your heart and refresh you and in some sort of spiritual sense restore you.”
THAT IS NOT WHAT PETER IS TALKING ABOUT.
It is something much more concrete and factual than that.
The “times of refreshing” and “the period of restoration”
Are terms that are synonymous with the millennial reign of Christ.
The Jews (even the disciples) where continually looking for
This “period of restoration”
Acts 1:6 “So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
Even later in the book of Acts when discussing
The Gentile / circumcision controversy James quoted Amos 9:11-12
Acts 15:16-18 “AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’ SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.”
They were looking for “restoration”
They were looking for Israel to be restored.
WHY?
Because God had promised it.
Malachi 4:5-6 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”
This is of course why the disciples asked Jesus about Elijah coming.
Matthew 17:11 “And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things;”
This is why it was said of John the Baptist
Luke 1:17 “It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, TO TURN THE HEARTS OF THE FATHERS BACK TO THE CHILDREN, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
They were looking for an actual and literal restoration of Israel.
Our kids learned this last Wednesday night as they studied Palm Sunday.
Matthew 21:9 “The crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!”
Do you know what “hosanna” means?
It is an exclamatory term meaning “Save now!”
They saw Jesus entering Jerusalem and were ready to be restored.
Now, as we just noted this restoration could not occur
Without the death of the Messiah.
This is because Israel’s problem wasn’t Rome, it was sin.
BUT ONCE PROPITIATION WAS MADE,
THEN THE KINGDOM COULD BE RESTORED.
TURN TO: Zechariah 12
Read: Zechariah 12:10-14
• This is obviously following the crucifixion of the Messiah,
• Even following the pouring out of God’s Spirit
Which causes Israel to repent and trust in Christ.
We even notice a corporate repentance as well as a personal one.
This will be followed by a total salvation:
Read: Zechariah 13:1
And by a national cleansing of sin and impurity
Read: Zechariah 13:2-9
And following that recognition and repentance and total cleansing,
God will restore the nation.
Read: Zechariah 14:1-9
God promised a restoration of Israel from of old.
Incidentally Paul focuses on this same restoration in Romans 9-11
And just to make sure we are clear on what this period is like:
Isaiah 65:17-25 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. “No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Will be thought accursed. “They will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. “They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. “They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them. “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. “The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,” says the LORD.”
After Israel repents (which they do in Isaiah 64)
God restores Israel and lifts the curse from this world.
It is a glorious thing!
The Christ has already suffered.
That has been fulfilled.
Now it is time for you to “repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”
Christ did His part, now you do yours.
“repent”
1) So you can be forgiven
2) So Christ can come and restore you.
You must repent
(20) “that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,”
He is not here right now.
Now He is in heaven and He will stay there “until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
Peter is telling the Jews that it hinges now upon you.
There is nothing more that He needs to do.
He won’t come again until it is time to restore all things.
But He won’t come and restore all things until you (Israel)
Repent and return to Him.
So take all your end times prophecies and if you want to know what delays the 2nd Coming of Christ? It is unbelieving Israel.
And that is exactly what Paul teaches:
Romans 11:11-16 “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.”
We are waiting for them to “repent and return…in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”
And so the expectation is simple.
“repent and return”
And beloved recognize Peter’s conviction.
The fact is Christ suffered and died and until Israel repents and returns He is not going to restore all things.
And so it does Peter no good to speak in uncertainties.
It does him no good to say, (Like the modernist) “Well you know God said a whole lot in the Old Testament about restoring the kingdom, but my mind tells me it won’t really happen.”
It does him no good to say, (Like the post-modernist) “I can’t speak confidently about the death of Christ, or the need for repentance, or the coming of a kingdom, because it is impossible to be certain about such things.”
Peter didn’t preach like that at all.
He took the promises of God in Scripture,
Applied them to the lives of Israel,
And demanded that they change their lives to it.
He told them to “repent and return”
Now, obviously there is a lot that Peter said here that is specific to Israel,
But the pattern by which Peter preaches is one we can follow as well.
When we preach to Gentiles the fact remains that
• Because of Israel’s disobedience a window of opportunity has
opened for us to be grafted in to Christ and be part of His
kingdom as well.
• But Scripture says this is a small window of opportunity until
the day when “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in”
(Romans 11:25) and the whole thing shifts back to Israel.
• And based upon that fact we tell Gentiles you had better
“repent” and trust in Christ because a day of judgment is
coming.
It is not a thought that originated in the human mind,
It is not a thought that is only a suggestion it is the truth of God.
Our job is to call men to yield their lives to it and thus be saved.
That is how Peter preached at Pentecost
And that is how Peter preached here.
And that is what God used to grow His church.
We’ll finish this sermon up next time.
