Repentance Brings Refreshment Series

Repentance Brings Refreshment

Rev. Brian Bill

Acts 3:17-26

November 9-10, 2019

I have a white board up here today. Could you shout out the names of various sins you struggle with? If it’s easier to think of the sins of others, you can share theirs.

Last weekend we focused on the first half of Peter’s second sermon in the Book of Acts and were challenged to look at every situation as a gospel opportunity. After the lame man began leaping, Peter started preaching while calling the people to account for killing Christ.

Listen now to the second half of his sermon from Acts 3:17-26: “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, 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 the 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.”

Here’s what I’m hoping we get today: We must practice continual repentance as we call others to do the same. I see three requirements and three results in this passage.

Requirements

1. Reflect on what you did. Look at verse 17: “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.” Note how Peter changes his tone by identifying himself with them by calling them “brothers.” Then He acknowledges they didn’t really know what they were doing when they crucified Christ. He’s following the model set by Jesus when He prayed in Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Later in 1 Corinthians 2:8, Paul says, “None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

2. Recognize what God has done. Next Peter takes his listeners to fulfilled prophecy in verse 18: “But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.” Drop down to verse 21: “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 verse 24: “And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.”

John 6:14 identifies Jesus as the prophet proclaimed by Moses: “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” Here we see the coming of Christ and His crucifixion was foretold by “all” the prophets and everything was fulfilled with pinpoint precision. The word “fulfilled” means to “make full.” God’s promises and prophecies have come to full and final fruition in Christ. Jesus said it like this in Luke 24:27: “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”

It’s amazing to realize there are over 300 clear prophecies about the birth, life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ that have been fulfilled. For the sake of time, I’ll share just a few:

• Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some 900 years later, Jesus uttered these exact words from the cross in Matthew 27:46: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

• Psalm 22:7: “All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads.” This was fulfilled when the masses mocked the Messiah according to Matthew 27:39: “And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads.”

• Isaiah 50:6: “I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” This was fulfilled 700 years later in Mark 14:65: “And some began to spit on him and to cover his face and to strike him, saying to him, ‘Prophesy!’ And the guards received him with blows.”