The Acts of the Apostles 12

Subtitle: Peter Preaches Again part 2

Acts 3:17-26.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 7, 2022.

We pick up Peter’s second recorded sermon this morning, which we started last week.  Let’s get into the passage.

God had sent Messiah and they killed him

Peter has outlined how they have been fighting against God in their actions.  God had sent Messiah, but they had crucified him.  They were more than simply resisting God’s directions.  They were hostile to them.

Yet, in verse 17, Peter points out that they and their rulers had done it in ignorance.  Jesus on the cross had prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  They didn’t realize that they were actually killing Messiah, but that doesn’t make what they did good.  It is simply a mitigating factor.  At many points, the rulers and people had mistreated Jesus, refused to accept the truth, and then put to death an innocent man.

Ignorance speaks to the knowledge and understanding that one has.  There are many things we simply do not know.  In fact, we are born 100% ignorant of life.  We begin to accumulate knowledge and understanding little by little.  Can we not see that the things of which we are ignorant are practically infinite?  What we do know only scratches the surface of all that can be known.  Thus, the most knowledgeable among us may not be ignorant compared to the average person, but compared to God they haven’t even reached 1% of what can be known, much less the stuff that we cannot know because God has not designed us with the capacity to discover them.  A wise person recognizes that the more they learn, the more they become aware of just how great their ignorance really is.

This brings up the subject of willful ignorance.  The truth can be staring us in the face, but we refuse to recognize it because of certain ramifications we are unwilling to accept.  Where is the line between inherently not knowing, like a child, and being stubborn and willful in refusing to accept the truth?  Only God can perfectly judge those kinds of issues of the heart.

Peter brings up the fact that God had foretold all of these things through the prophets.  They were told in advance that the Messiah would suffer in many different ways through many different prophets.  This doesn’t mean they should have had perfect understanding of what Jesus was doing and who he was, but they could have had enough understanding to be more careful.  Even John the Baptist, who demonstrated great understanding of the identity and work of Jesus, wrestled with the way things were going.

The people and their rulers could have had a better understanding than what they had.  They had become curiously incurious about certain passages and teachings of the prophets that would have at least helped them be more careful.  Yes, we can’t help a certain part of our ignorance, but some of it we can.

In fact, the most important part of this whole issue is not even our knowledge level.  It really comes down to being sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  Peter, John, James, and all the others, didn’t reject Jesus and call for his crucifixion.  They were able to get to that place by responding in repentance and faith at critical points in that 3 ½ years that Jesus ministered in Israel.

We are not so very different today.  The Church can be very proud about the great amount of knowledge that we have received through Jesus and the apostles.  However, that cannot take the place of sensitivity to what the Spirit of God is doing now.  Many very learned people have so systematized the biblical information that they are willfully ignorant to things that contradict their theological traditions.  Sound familiar?  We can become so enamored with the things of this world that we don’t seek God for the truth.  We can be happy with a surface knowledge of many things, or a rationale that we have adopted, but those things need to bow before the authority and power of the Lord Jesus.

Have I become a student of the Lord Jesus?  Think of it.  In the Bible we have a written document of the things that the Creator of all the universe wants us to understand, wants you to understand.  Many people who are ignorant in the eyes of the people around them will be found holding on to the Lord in the days ahead, having wisdom in the one thing that truly matters.  And, many who have the most biblical knowledge will be found fighting against what God is doing, lacking wisdom in the one thing that truly matters.  Jesus is working to give us a love of the Truth (2 Thess 2:10-12), so that it is love for him that will bring us through in the end, just like Peter all those years ago on the shores of Galilee in John 21.

Here is the good news.  God is still gracious.  Peter tells the crowd that they can still repent and turn to God.  In English, the word “repent” focuses on turning back to sorrow for one’s actions (for sin), as opposed to continuing forward in them.  This covers several important aspects of what the Bible says must happen in our hearts.  However, the word it is used to translate also has a meaning of a change of mind.  Of course, one must have a change of mind in order to turn back and have sorrow for sin, so I am not quibbling with the translation.  Rather, I am homing in an unseen aspect in this text.

We must have a change of mind about our life, and not just an alternate rationale created by us.  We really must adopt the mind of Christ.  We really must allow him to be the lord of our life.  This change of mind will turn us back from resisting and fighting what God is doing.  It will lead us to put our faith in Jesus, his commands, and the teachings of his apostles.  It will keep us from sacrificing Jesus for the sake of our willful way.

In this life, we will have a continual need for learning.  Thus, repentance will always be a part of the believer’s life.  It must never become a thing of the past.  Instead, it must become the daily path on which we walk.  Many are the exits that will take us off the road of repentance.  May the Spirit of God keep us on that Highway of Holiness, that good path, that we can only know through relationship with Jesus and the Word of God.

This brings us to verse 19.

Repentance will bring blessings

If we repent, then there are some good things from God that we will enjoy.  But, if we do not repent, then we stiff-arm the blessings that God wants to give to us.

Peter tells them that they need to change their mind and turn back into their sins being blotted out.  The direct result of changing their mind about Jesus and putting their faith in him will be the blotting out, or wiping out, of their sins.  It is the cancelling of the official record of our sins.  Sure, the fact that there are blots speaks of sins, but the fact of them being blotted out means they cannot be held against us before God.  Oh, this world will continually try to pin you to your past sins.  However, God offers freedom from those sins, and will not use them against you in the future.  Hallelujah!

In Isaiah 44:22, God promises Israel that, “I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.” (ESV)  Praise God that our sins can be blotted out when we repent, take on the mind of Christ, and exercise faith in the Son of God and the Word of God.

A second blessing is mentioned in verse 19, “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”  The word “may” here does not question that they will come, but rather repentance removes a hindrance that keeps the Lord from sending them.  When it is removed, then he will send them as he determines.

In this life, we cannot get very far without being refreshed.  However, don’t settle for mere refreshing of your body and mind, your flesh.  I guess we could call those “refleshments.”  We not only need our bodies and minds refreshed, but more importantly, we need our spirits refreshed by the Spirit of God.  This is what Peter is talking about.  We need God’s periodic spiritual refreshment in order to successfully navigate this life, and He knows when we need it.  Yet, the problem is that our flesh and the enemy seek to consume us with refreshing the flesh to the exclusion of our spirit.  Another problem is that His refreshment doesn’t always look like such to us.  They had destroyed the refreshment of Messiah in their midst, but here was God offering them a second chance to drink from the wells of salvation and receive the Messiah back into their lives.

This is intended for them as individuals, but also as a nation.  Salvation gives us a relationship with the Lord of Life who cares for our soul and is the good shepherd.  Yet, it is clear that Peter ties in their repentance as a nation to the next blessing- a Second Coming of the Messiah.  It is interesting that the book of Zechariah pictures a great work of repentance in Israel where they will “look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10 NKJV).  Then, in chapter 14 of that same book, God promises to save Israel from complete destruction at the hands of the nations of the world by coming down out of the heavens Himself.  This is the Second Coming of Christ that pictures his feet touching down on the Mount of Olives and splitting it in half.  What a refreshing time that will be for the nation of Israel!

Thus, the next blessing Peter mentions is that God may send Jesus back and begin the Restoration of All Things (verses 20-21).  Jesus must stay in the heavens until the time of The Restoration of All Things.  The earlier refreshments by God’s Spirit would keep them sustained until they came to that Great Refreshing that God has promised in His Word.  All the prophets pointed to a time when all that has gone wrong in this world and in the heavens will be restored to their proper state.  The Bible can be seen as a story of how everything went wrong (think Genesis), and yet how God is bringing everything back to a restored state that is even better than the original (think Revelation with its New Heavens and the New Earth).  That day is set by God.  We have a destiny in the future that cannot be avoided.  Yet, there is a sense where repentance could perhaps speed it up.

Peter specifically reminds them of the prophecy of Moses found in Deuteronomy 18 (esp. vs 18).  Moses leads up to this prophecy by warning Israel against listening to spiritists and those who practice divination.  God had not given Israel over to these lesser Elohim.  They had a greater destiny than the nations who were following the wrong Elohim.  Their destiny was to first receive the word of the One True God through Moses in building up the nation of Israel, and then later, God would send them another Prophet like Moses. 

Hebrews 3:1-6 emphasizes this connection by pointing out that Moses was faithful as a servant of God to build the house of Israel.  However, Jesus Messiah was faithful “as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” (Heb. 3:6 NKJV).  This speaks of the “house” of the Church.  We don’t have time for it today.  However, this language of a house being built by the son for himself so that the Church can live with him is the wedding analogy that Jesus used so often.

In Jesus, Messiah had come to make an offer of betrothal to Israel.  As a nation, they rejected it, but Christ takes a remnant and sends them to the nations in order to raise up a bride that will be married to him at the end of this age.  All the prophets warned of this critical period, and Moses stated that those who rejected this Prophet, Messiah, would be destroyed from among God’s people.  They were in danger of losing their place, their lot, their inheritance.

In verse 25, Peter reminds them of their heritage.  They are the sons of the prophets, and the offspring of Abraham.  This means that they had inherited the writings of the prophets, and the promise of Abraham that the families of the whole earth would be blessed through them, i.e., Israel.  All that we know of God is passed to the Gentile nations through the people of Israel.  Israel is far more important than any other nation in the sense of God’s work in the world.  However, His work is for the sake of all the nations of the world.  In fact, God did not just choose Israel from among the nations back in the days of Abraham.  Rather, God rejected all of the nations, and instead, created a new nation by His own hand as Adam was created directly by God.

This is why God sent His Servant Jesus to Israel first.  They had been and still were the instrument through which God had spoken to the nations.  They were God’s witness to the world.  However, the word first, implies others.  The Gospel of Jesus would go to the nations through his faithful believers, and thus, all the earth would receive a second witness through the Church of Jesus.  Here we are today hearing these same words that Israel heard 1,990 some odd years ago.

O, how America needs a time of refreshing in which we are turned away from our sin into full faith and obedience to the Lord Jesus the Messiah.  It will only happen as Spirit-filled believers, who are keeping in step with Jesus, interact with a people who are steeped in all manner of ignorance.  May God refresh his people today so that we can renew our battle against the works of Satan upon those around us!

Peter Preaches Again 2 audio

When The Lord Questions You

Luke 20:41-47.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 20, 2015.

In the previous chapter we saw how Jesus wept over Jerusalem because of the hard hearts the people there had, especially the leaders.  This chapter has given us snapshots of the last week before the crucifixion, in which Jesus speaks to the people in the temple area.  This last attempt to turn their hearts runs into stiff opposition from the religious leaders.  Today we see that Jesus somewhat turns the table on them and asks them his own questions.  However, we should be careful of thinking that Jesus is only giving them a taste of their own medicine.  Rather, he specifically asks about a passage that is key to explaining who the Messiah really is and why they stumbled at the way Jesus spoke of his connection with The Father.  They claim to know so much.  But, if they would simply admit that there are some unexplained things in the Scriptures, they would be in a better position to accept what God was trying to reveal to them.  Jesus was the Son of God come down to do for us what we could not do for ourselves.

Jesus Exposes Their Willful Ignorance

There is nothing wrong with being ignorant.  All of us have areas of ignorance, no matter how smart we are.  No one can know all that mankind “knows,” much less all that is possible to be known.  Being ignorant is not a problem.  But, willful ignorance in the face of God’s revelation is a sin that we should be quick to repent of. 

The religious leaders questioned Jesus in order to undermine the authority that Jesus had with the common people, and to find fault with him.  Now God can handle our questions.  We can question Him, but we must recognize that when we are done He may have some questions for us.  This is part of the error of those who scoff and mock the Bible with questions that are clearly intended to manipulate how it looks rather than to find truth.  Go ahead and mock God’s Word, but also recognize that God will in turn have His time of questioning you.  Would you survive the same tactics against yourself that you employ against Him?  Honest questioning for the sake of Truth is not a threat to God.  But dishonest questions as a covering for sin and rejecting God will be shown for what they are.

They were calling Jesus a heretic because he called himself the Son of God.  I will share a couple of examples.  In Luke 19 Jesus told a parable about the owner of a vineyard.  At the end the owner sends his son to the caretakers and they kill him.  It was clear to the religious leaders that the owner was God, the vineyard was Israel, and they were the caretakers.  Notice that Jesus casts himself in the parable as the son of the owner.  This was not lost on them.  They resented and rejected his characterizations.  In John 10:30 Jesus said, “ ‘I and my Father are one.’  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.  Jesus answered them, ‘Many good works I have shown you from my Father.  For which of those works do you stone me?’  The Jews answered Him saying, ‘For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, being a man, make yourself God.’”  It is being disingenuous to say that they misinterpreted Jesus.  He knew what he was saying.  His “oneness” with the Father was a bold claim of sharing in the divine nature of God.  We also have Luke 22:70 when Jesus is on trial.  They ask him point blank if he is the son of God.  What is the response of Jesus?  “You rightly say that I am.”  This was not their main point for rejecting Jesus.  They had already done this from the beginning.  Yet, it became the leverage they needed to cover their evil desire to execute him.  So is it really blasphemy to claim that the Messiah would be the Son of God?  This is the heart of what Jesus is asking them when he points them to Psalm 110 in this passage.

First of all let’s establish the fact that the Messiah would be the son of David.  This was accepted by all parties involved.  It is in 2 Samuel 7:12-17 that God promises David that his kingdom and throne will be established forever.  God would not reject the claim of David’s family to the throne like He did with Saul.  Thus David’s line becomes essential moving forward.    The prophets picked up on this and added further revelation.  In Isaiah 9:6-7 we are told that One would sit on the throne of David who will be called: Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.  Several of these titles pose some problems if you are contending that the Messiah will not have a divine nature.  Thus this coming Messiah would fulfill all that was missing in those earthly kings of David’s line.  Each successive king quickly proved that they were not the messiah and so Israel waited.  In Micah 5:2 it says, “You, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”  Again this coming messianic ruler is spoken of in terms that go beyond a mere human.  Yes, we can interpret it to mean that the prophecies about his coming are of old, though he is not.  But, it is phrased in such a way that doesn’t negate that his existence would be from ancient times.  Lastly, at the announcement to Mary of her coming pregnancy by the angel Gabriel, it says in Luke 1:32, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.”  So the messiah is the ultimate Son of David.  But it was being revealed to the people of the first century that he was more than a man.  He was the Son of God.  This was not in contradiction to Scripture and only made some Scriptures more understandable.  This leads us to Psalm 110 which Jesus quotes from in today’s Scripture portion.

The question that Jesus asks is this.  How can you say that the messiah is the son of David when David calls the messiah his Lord?  How can an earthly descendant of David also be his lord?  Now when we look at the verse we need to recognize that in the Psalms there are two different words being translated as Lord, in fact you will notice the first “LORD” is in all caps (or small caps) and the second is only capitalized.  This is because the translators are letting you know they are two different words.  Here is a rough translation that helps us see this.  “YHWH said to my adonai….  The first is a reference to the name of God given to Moses at Mt. Sinai.  Historically it has been translated as Jehovah or Yahweh.  The second is a term that refers to a king, master or teacher.  The word always places the person in authority another class (i.e. king to citizens, master to slave, teacher to disciples etc…).  Thus David is literally revealing that he saw the messiah (who would be a descendant of him) as his king and master.  When Jesus asks them how they can call the messiah the son of David, he is not doing it to say they are wrong. But, instead, he is taking them back to a messianic passage and saying, if statement one is true then how do you understand statement two.  Now the answer that is being revealed in the days of Jesus is that the body of Jesus was biologically from the line of David.  As a side not on this biological aspect of Jesus, we should note that the creative act of the Spirit in causing Mary’s pregnancy is not explained further.  Thus even the biology of the body of Jesus is at least partially from David and possibly also from God.  Yet, the spirit of Christ is from before David and has existed from the beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Jesus was the prophesied “Right hand” of God accomplishing salvation for himself. 

Though these were new truths that God was revealing regarding His plan, we must note that none of it is contradictory to the Old Testament.  This is the problem.  The religious leaders claim to know the truth and will not accept what Jesus is saying.  Yet, Jesus shows them that the very Scriptures they claim to know point to the very things that he is revealing.  Thus they are choosing to reject this new light.  This is what I meant earlier by a willful ignorance.  You might ask yourself this.  Is God trying to open my eyes to something that I am resisting and rejecting?  We know that God is working everyday to open the eyes of people to the Truth and yet many reject it.  One day you will be questioned by God himself.  He will expose the flimsy arguments that we use and give back to us according to how we questioned Him.  I encourage those who don’t accept Jesus as both man and divine to be careful how they deal with God’s Word and Christians, His people.  Do you want to be dealt with in the same way by Him?

He Exposes Their Sin

In verse 45 Jesus turns back to the people and warns them about the sin of the religious leaders.  Those who are going to follow Christ must first learn to avoid the pitfalls that keep people from accepting Jesus.  First, Jesus points out the misplaced desire and love that these religious leaders have.  Their desire was for public attention and the adoration of people rather than to please God.  They were filled with pride regarding their godliness, and yet, they did not really love God.  Instead, they loved to be honored and have the best.  There is nothing wrong with wanting people to approve of our actions.  But when that desire goes outside the proper boundaries it becomes an inordinate desire.  They desired man’s applause more than God’s.  They desired the authority that they had for their own purposes and ends rather than for the purposes of God.  This same sin is rampant today within the churches of the USA.  Our churches are overwhelmed with people who have inordinate desires and misplaced loves.  At the end of the day they are serving their own ego at the expense of the work of God.

The religious leaders also were taking advantage of the desperate within society.  Devouring widows houses is a reference to the way they would worm their way into receiving the money of widows while they live and in their deaths.  The term devour depicts the beastly nature of their actions.  They preyed upon the desperate situation of the widows in order to enrich themselves.  They loved money rather than those widows for whom they were to be a protection.  The love of money has infiltrated the churches of this country to the point that it has become a mark of godliness to be rich.   Although there is nothing wrong with being rich, we must recognize how inordinate desires and love pulls us away from God and in the “name of God” we pursue whatever our heart wants.  As long as we slap a Jesus sticker on it in the end, we are living godly.  If God rejected such mockeries then how much more will He reject those who bring ridicule to the Son of God whom we are supposed to be serving?

Jesus also points out their false piety.  They pray long prayers, not because they love talking with God, but because they love putting on a show for the people.  They are not as pious as they depict.  Such pretensions are false and are revolting to God.  We tend to follow spiritual leaders who look pious and godly.  Many are being misled because they foolishly do not look to the Scriptures.  God has warned us and exposed the methods of the unrighteous.  Don’t let yourself fall into the trap of trying to please men.  Focus on pleasing God and let the chips fall where they may.

Lastly, Jesus states that these leaders will receive a greater condemnation.  Why is this so?  They will receive greater condemnation because they spend their days studying and writing about the Scriptures and yet reject the very things the Scriptures are trying to teach, and they reject the very one who authored the Scriptures.  They receive a greater condemnation because they declare that they have the truth and force others to come under error and miss the truth.

Friend, the day will come when God will judge each and every one of us.  How will it go for me in that day?  It will not be the fact that we have sinned that will be the issue.  No, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  Rather, it will be the fact of how we dealt with that sin.  Did I submit and plead guilty before the court of heaven?  Did I then cling to Jesus, the Son of God, to be my teacher and savior?  These men refused to hear what God was trying to teach them from the Scriptures and thus they missed the blessing He had for them.  Make sure you don’ t miss God’s blessing for you!

WhenTheLordQuestions Audio