The Book of Acts 3:12-26 - Peter's 2nd Sermon
Acts 3:12-26 · Bob Eckel · Mar 16, 2014
Acts (2014), No. 11
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926420437299

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We're in Acts 3 verses 12 through 26, so we've got a fair amount to cover today. We talk about the book of Acts as really not being a doctrinal book, but in a sense I see doctrine kind of between the pages here a little bit, and I think we can't divorce ourselves entirely. from that aspect of the Acts of the Apostles.

So let's go ahead and read 12 through 26. We've got a lot of reading here, but I think we need to read the whole passage before we drill down and segment it in terms of our conversation. So whoever can do that for us, please. I'll read it. 12 through 26. 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?

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, and 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. But he denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.

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. And now, brethren, I want that you, through ignorance, ye did it. as did also your rulers. But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 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.

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, 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. 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. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.

Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. 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 kindreds of the earth be blessed. 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. Alright, good. Thank you, Margaret. That's a lot of text there. So let's go ahead and progress.

So I've kind of made segments of this presentation today on this passage of scripture into four different areas. The first is Peter's reminder of the Jews' responsibility. And that really is verses 12 through 15. So we're not going to read those again. So let's just go ahead and drill down now and look at the details.

So this is the third of Peter's seven addresses. in the book of Acts. This presentation today is called Peter's Second Sermon. Of the seven addresses, this is called a sermon whereas one of the previous two was not. We will not need to look at that further, but that is why Roger entitled this lesson and I am fine with that.

All of these sermons or addresses that Peter gives really address and focus on the work and person of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that is relevant. Peter is not talking about archeology or the times that try men's souls here. He is simply talking about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is really the new church age here in which Peter is dwelling.

So, if we look at this verse, he refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as God's servant, and that's referenced in Isaiah 42.1, the Holy One, 1 John 2.20, the Just or Righteous One, Isaiah 53.11, and the Prince of Life, Isaiah 9.6. All of these have multiple other references that describe Christ in these ways. Somebody has looked at this and Lord Jesus Christ is described by 27 different names or something.

That may not be accurate, but a large number of names. Yes Tom? If you are familiar with the term Kitbash, especially if you are in model railroading, this would be kind of like a real condensation, what he was trying to tell. It probably hit them all like a ton of bricks because they were all probably very learned in the scriptures. So some of these seem to overlap, don't they, a little bit?

The holy one and the just and righteous one. I mean, those kind of are very related. But he's described here by Peter as the Lord Jesus Christ and the Son of God. So I think it's really pretty evident that what Peter's trying to get across to the Jews is evidence to support Christ for who he was and who he is. And don't you think, too, going back to what Tom just said, is these were very learned Jews who knew the scripture and also knew the prophecies. And I think these words that Peter's taking out of here are words that are drawn right out of all of those scriptures to kind of hit them, you know, kind of head on each one.

Right, well three of the four references I gave you were Old Testament from Isaiah, but Holy One, I think there might be an Old Testament reference there too, but I think 1 John 2.20 is one that exemplified Holy One. Anyway, I think you're right, Margaret, and of course this section of Scripture is steeped with prophecy in Old Testament prophets, so we'll get to that as we get to the end of the text here today.

And of course Christ is the one from which the enabling power that made this lame man walk came from, right? I think we're going to deal with this a little bit more in detail, but I think the question is by what power did this lame man walk? Was it the lame man's faith? No. We'll come back to that because I think this is an important point. The lame man didn't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore walked. I mean this is the power that God gave Peter during the apostolic age that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ this man walked.

Remember he was crippled from birth and every day they are bringing him down to the temple called beautiful for people to give alms. So here is a guy who never walked, who was crippled by birth, a congenital defect presumably of some sort. And up until this day, you studied last week, there was no ability for him to ambulate. But now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ he ambulates. Not because of his faith, but because of the ability that God gave Peter in the apostolic age to have healing ministries before.

I think that's important. Alright, so he spoke as a Jew, I think, and about the God of Abraham. But let's turn to Matthew 22, 32. I've got a lot of references today. We're not going to look at them all, but there are a few that I think are worth pulling up just to exemplify what we're studying. So, whomever, just read it.

I'm the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead, but of the living. Okay, and who's speaking? That's Jesus. Yeah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about himself, of being the God of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob. And isn't it interesting, he says, I'm the God of the living, not the dead.

I think that is powerful in its own right. I think this ability of Peter who has Jewish blood in and out of his bones, a bond that reflects his credentials before the people he is speaking to here. Now, it says that Peter responded, but what did he respond to? Do we have any evidence of what he is responding to here?

That's astounding. The fact that they were astounded and ran together to Fort Fuller, maybe to praise them or to marvel at them, I don't know. Why do you marvel at this? Presumably marveling. They may not be asking any questions. But he's responding to their marveling. I don't think we have a specific question.

I strongly suspicion that they followed this poor old man's case for some years. This had been the way it had been all along. His whole life. And of course it's plain and obvious that he wasn't getting better from anything. Whatever he was in, he was stuck. And so the earlier the worse, totally astounded. He's okay. He's all better. He didn't even have to go through rehab. Well, the issue, remember all the miracles Christ did, that didn't save anybody, right? Miracles didn't save anybody.

And I think the Jewish people to whom Peter is addressing are going kind of through the same scenario, but they're a little bit maybe more amazed because, you know, they're seeing Peter now carrying out the same types of activities the Lord Jesus Christ did. And they're really, they're marveling not only at the experience, but perhaps marveling at the fact that Peter has this power. Speculation, but I think that's part of it. So one last thing, if you don't mind.

They were not. It turned out that in the background description, there were people from all over. up as Jews. So I'm sure that at least a good percentile of those were of the dispersion. They didn't have any idea that Jesus was out there, and here they are showing up for the pit cause. So you're in a sense suggesting that maybe some of these people didn't know of Christ and his healing ministry.

So he died in the world, Jews are the rest, that's all it was. OK, good. So I'm going to kind of bring up a point that I think what Peter's doing here is pointing out three issues related to the way the Jews dealt with the Lord Jesus Christ. The first is that they delivered him up to Pilate and then condemned him when Pilate was about to release him. So that's one thing he's reminding them of, of what they've done. Number two is they rejected him and spared the murderer So that was the second thing that's brought up here.

The third is that they executed the one who is the source of life, John 1.4, proven by his resurrection.

And that's in Acts 2.23 and 24. Let's look at those.

John 1.4 and Acts 2.23, 24.

So, Wayne, could you do the John 1.4 passage? And let's see. Doris, could you do the Acts 2, 23, 24? You just have to turn back one chapter for that one. John 1, 4.

In him was life, and the life was the life of men. Pretty simple, straightforward statement. So he is the source of life. And of course, when we go to Galatians, I mean, he's the one who created basically life. OK, and the second one, Doris? him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, he hath taken, and by wicked hands hath crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should beholden of it." Okay, so here we've got not only is he the source of life, but in fact he cannot be maintained in the position of death. with no earthly experience.

You know I think the cool thing about this is that it shows the power of the Holy Spirit because wasn't it just a little while ago that Peter denied that he even knew Christ and here he is going like hey you killed him. But a couple points about that though is that don't we at times deny the Holy Spirit too? I mean I think you're correct that Peter is now involved by the Holy Spirit but that doesn't mean that he also doesn't fall short at times. Oh yeah but just what a change from who he was.

And the second thing remember even though the Jews are being criticized here for crucifying Christ taking him to Pilate and then not allowing him to be released or encouraging Pilate not to release him and having Barabbas being released and ultimately crucifying the source of life.

We crucified him too. I mean even though the Jews are being addressed here in terms of their responsibilities. That's why I titled this Peter is addressing the Jews reminding them of their responsibility in this whole process. We crucified him by our own sin nature.

And they were witnesses, and presumably they is Peter and John who actually came to this lame man and ultimately healed him. But presumably the entire twelve, because the entire twelve witnessed the resurrection, right? So I think that we're talking about the witnesses of the resurrection are not just Peter and John, they're the entire twelve. Now, next verse is an important one, Peter's declaration, and his name through faith in his name has made this man strong whom we see and know, yes the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. So who's faith in the name?

Ephesians 1.21 says it's a name higher than any other name. We don't have to look at that. There are several verses that talk about the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a powerful name. It's a name that's above any other name. In fact, the entire human history is based on the birth of Christ. Although people are trying to change the calendar now to get Christ out of the calendar. But all that aside, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ still is at the peak of Mount Everest and above it.

And also of the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 3.6 relates to that. We can look down a few verses for that.

Healed this perfect healed him, meaning this perfect soundness is really equal to health. It means all the body parts are in place. And it's never used in scripture other than right here. So perfect soundness is really a body that's totally whole and functional. It means health. In other words, even the ravages of old age have probably been dented to a considerable degree. And so it's plain to everybody. Yeah. So I can use a little more perfect soundness as we talk about its application here.

And the landmans, you know, Or is this the lame man's faith or is it Peter's and John's faith? We addressed that a minute ago. Do we have any evidence from the scriptures if you look at the verses last week 1-11 that the lame man responded by faith. Now Christ gives examples where people respond by faith are ultimately healed.

No it says in verse 5 and he gave head unto them expecting to receive something of them. had nothing to do with faith, he was expecting to receive alms. Correct. That's why he's been put there by his family. Show me the money. So was the faith Peter and John's or was the faith given to the lame man through God? I think that's, let me hold on that question just for a second Holly, but if you look at 1 through 11 it's not clear that this man responded by faith. So let's build that story. Until afterwards.

So one could ask how long had he been placed daily at the Temple of Beautiful and his lameness by the way since birth persisted. Presumably this was started when he was a teenager or whatever, maybe as a small child. So he's been placed there, we don't know the age of this man, but he presumably was being taken down there every day. But they don't call him a boy or a young man, they call him a man. Plus for that purpose he must have been bar mitzvahed at least. Well, presumably he's Jewish. You would think he is. That would be considered of age to follow the law.

So, Holly, based on this, I've raised the question, what does this say about miraculous healing today? And that really indirectly answers your question. I think Peter, during the apostolic age there was all kind of stuff going on that doesn't occur anymore. We pray for people's illness all the time in this body of believers here. And we pray for our own illnesses or maladies that also we are going to recover. But is God miraculously healing people? Sure he is capable but I think in the apostolic age the healing ministries were there.

And by the faith of Peter and John presumably in the ability of God to work through this at that time people were speaking in unknown languages that they didn't know beforehand. People were casting miracles in terms of healing like the lame man. So I think that what this is is the faith of Peter and John that this was the time and the age by which this type of ministry was occurring. Yeah, and didn't it say that Peter held out his hand and pulled him up? So maybe it was like the guy, if he had been lame his whole life, he'd be like, no, I'm not going to stand up. So maybe it was like Peter pulling him up that was the faith of Peter knowing that he's not going to fall back down.

This was witnessed by a crowd. They saw someone who had never walked before now walking. We have no evidence that the lame man himself responded by faith. Now after he was healed we don't have any information. Did he now come to be saved? We're just not told that.

But I think this is the miraculous work of God through the the apostles during the apostolic age, it reflects the power of God through earthly circumstances. I was just going to point out that, I don't have the answer yet, but it would be interesting to know how many times when these miraculous healings occur, were it simply the apostles declaring, rise up and walk, or whatever, compared to Again, I don't know the answer, but I would think most of the times, as we mentioned already, when Jesus healed somebody, it was, if you have faith, you're going to be healed. So, in other words, Jesus is asking the individual to have faith in him, whereas, I don't know, but if it's true that throughout the book of Acts, it's almost always the faith in the apostles, the power given to the apostles, and saying, okay, rise up and walk. then that distinction I think would be interesting along the lines of what you're saying there. I don't know if that is going to hold true but it would be interesting if it did. I think that's an excellent point and makes me feel a little remiss in not drilling down on that and other examples in AXAND or the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many people believe that Christ healed everyone and would presumably that mean everyone responded by faith? I'm saying that's an opinion of some that there was no one at his time that he didn't heal, who came to him to request to be healed. I don't know whether that's true, but it could well be true. Gosh, how could you not believe after that?

Although I guess we do it all the time ourselves too. It's coincidence. But I think that's a good question. I think it's really a challenge for us to kind of drill down on that, to kind of examine this. But the question I've posed here, what does this say about healing ministries today? What are your thoughts? Are people, believers, going out and miraculously through the power of the spirit healing people? Not right and left. Every now and then you hear of something, but then it makes you wonder what that really is about. But do we need that kind of evidence today?

No, no way. When you look at who we are in Christ, God isn't interested in fixing up the old man. He's got a bigger plan for us. we can't limit God in any way nobody would want to be put in a position of saying God can't do whatever he wants but in the age in which the church age in which we live we have we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places right and we need to live above and sometimes illness is part of the trials and tribulations God brings to us and by the way each of us when we're called to prayer for Bob or for even Debbie the emotional pain she's going through I mean the issue is that that's for us too as prayer warriors right to be led by the Spirit. Jared?

Well this goes to I was talking in a completely different context to my brother yesterday about Christians who say, well, we know God's working in this situation, or God's working through us. And they'll point to, look at all the people that's come into our church, or all these different things. And you could say the same thing, well, God's healing through us.

Well, we have to go back to, what role has God given us now? What promises has God given us now? When we talk about God working, it has to be in the context of what he has promised us, and what he has given us right now. try and tie this to the healing. Has God, do we see any indication throughout the epistles in which God's directly addressing the church that we have a ministry of healing? That that's something that God does?

Certainly he can do it. Don't see it there though, do we? But it's not there. And it's easy, I mean you know how amazing the placebo effect can be. And so to simply say that God's healing through this person, we don't know, first of all, that he's healing, and it's amazing how the human body can respond to psychological confidence. So to say that, well, that's God working. Well, you have people that aren't Christians at all, that can do, through spiritualism, healing ministries, is God working through them.

We have to understand what God has given us, and the role that he has laid out for us now, which certainly is different than the role he gave the apostles. What Tal used to point out so often is that our role as believers, is to always, through everything we do, to bring glory to the Heavenly Father, right? And so, circumstantially, no matter what the circumstances are, we grow in grace, and we're increasingly being conformed and transformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore, healing may occur, and it may not.

But do we doubt God because somebody dies, physically, of a disease? Let's see, we've got twelve apostles that died, didn't we? I think good biblical teaching is these miraculous gifts of the apostolic age were there for a time for a reason and it was to spread the gospel and to continue to show the power of God as it impacted the early church. to be a mushroom blossoming out to where we are in 2014. Sort of, because you also said, well and it's true that it seems like miracles don't necessarily convict people, and so that isn't necessarily the blossoming, I think that's the Holy Spirit again, because if it was just relying on miracles for it to blossom, it probably wouldn't go anywhere. When we focus back before the church age, I mean, when Paul comes along and tells them what Christ had told him about the church age and the indwelling Holy Spirit and all this, it's a huge change. That's a great point, Wayne, because we're not the Paul yet. This is still Peter. No, no. Jews only. That's right. When we mix those two, it's...

But you know, too, it's not about our time here. All the blessings, everything that we have is not about here. So why would the Lord focus on doing all this healing here on earth when that's really being conformed to the image because it's the heavenlies where we have all the blessings. I think the way we pray here has to be biblically accurate and what we can pray for healing and we take everything to the Lord we have that opportunity day in and day out 24-7 we take anything to the Lord but we realize that we're living in earthly bodies and we pray for healing we pray for comfort and Lord whatever occurs both in the person we're praying for or in ourselves in our prayer life we realize that we're bringing glory to the Heavenly Father through the process. 24-7. Right? This is one circumstance at one point in time. Your visit to Tampa is one point in time, but yet ultimately you're being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ as you interact with your sisters.

And the Lord may open doors, he may not, but the Spirit leads, and that's what's needed. I think when the flesh starts forcing the Gospel on people, there's more of a negative message. But I think as the Spirit leads and doors are opened, then it's a meaningful way. One thing I always think about this, we are pretty tangential right now about the lesson today, but I think when people are asking questions, the doors get increasingly more widely opened. Again, a bit tangential, but I think it really does ask a question.

This healing process was the faith of Peter and John and what the Lord was doing through them, not the lame man. After you started walking, goodness, I'd wake up a little bit. Where did this power come from? But this was not what was portrayed. Alright, the next section I'm going to title, Peter's Convincing Appeal.

I'm going to read this for a second because it sets the stage for what follows. Yet now brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance. We're going to come back to that. as did also rulers, but those things which God foretold by the mouth of all its prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things.

This section, I think, is doctrinally sound. This is just not a historic message of Peter's second sermon. We got so much doctrine here, it's unbelievable. And we're going to take a look at a little bit of this. So Peter waxes tender here, doesn't he?

He's been very, very injurious and punitive in his comments. But here he's waxing a bit tender and stating that they and the rulers, and if you turn to 1 Corinthians 2, 7, and 8, did it in ignorance. But the question I ask is, is ignorance an excuse? Turn to 2 Corinthians, or 1 Corinthians 2, 7, and 8. That's worth reading.

That's a verse that I actually kind of forgot until I was preparing for London today. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery. the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, 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. Another version, the term, I thought We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory which none of the prince of the world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord. One of my translations had ignorance in there. They were ignorant. But in a sense those verses speak to that. So is ignorance an excuse?

It's like an excuse, not an excuse, but it was predestined by God for this to happen, so it had to happen, but it's not an excuse now that they know that Peter's telling them that this is a Christ, so it's not an excuse to not believe after Christ died and rose again. You know what I mean? One of the resurrection years, it was a clear demonstration that this was the Son of God.

I say, what about the Lord's prophets? the prophets God gave to predict the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. What about his miracles? What about his words? All these and maybe the dispersion some of these people did not know of the Lord Jesus Christ and everything Tom that he carried out. That allows me to believe that some were not entirely ignorant. But they constantly ask the question, was he really their messiah? And maybe they thought that his response to Caiaphas was in some way insufficient.

Let's look at this. I think this is interesting. Matthew 26, 62 to 64. Now, if you're a Jew and you're kind of dealing with this person who claims to be the son of God, and this is one of his terminal episodes before he gets crucified, Let's see how you might view this. And I found this interesting. Margaret, want to read that?

Thou hast said nevertheless I say unto you hereafter shall you see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming into the clouds of heaven. So a pretty powerful one liner but basically he kept quiet most of the time and finally in that statement kind of says I'm going to the right hand in power.

Who is this guy anyway? One liner. Maybe the Jews are looking at that as an insufficient documentation of who he is. If he is the son of God, why can't he get down off the cross? Where is that power? In their mind, I think the Jews thought he was coming, yes, as a king, but they misunderstood what what the prophecies were. They thought he was going to be a powerful king wielding some big sword to take care of their enemies.

Well, right, and that really begs the next statement I have. Jesus himself in his dying prayer said, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, right? So is that, that's ignorance? Is that ignorance? Yeah, it had to happen. Even today, you see people, well, Jesus came to start a religion. And then you get into this, what would Jesus do thing? What did he do? Yes. And that's why he came. Not to start something. To finish something. So this concept of ignorance really, as Holly stated, is part of God's plan. He didn't make them ignorant.

It's just that who is this son of God who comes and is born of a virgin woman and ultimately carries out these miraculous events and now he's being crucified. What kind of a king is this? What kind of a messiah is this? Born in a stable, shouldn't he be this powerful.

So now the mandate here is to repent and be converted. So this is a fun place to kind of jump off the diving board on. But is repentance necessary before conversion? A basic doctrinal question. What does repent mean? Change your mind. Very good, Holly. You've done your studies well. So what's the changing of the mind here all about? He's talking about these Jews, these unbelieving Jews. What do they need to change their mind about? Changing your mind doesn't get you saved. They need to change their mind about who this Lord Jesus Christ is. So that's what they need to change their mind about.

And then faith results in this transition from unbelief to belief. So once we change our mind, this is the son of God, then unbelief becomes belief. Now where that comes from? Does God cause us to believe or in fact do we make a decision to believe? We could spend weeks just discussing that issue. But all of us who were saved came to the point of understanding our relationship to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's individual stories, all the testimonies are equally valid. but you don't have to repent to be converted. Repent doesn't mean having your sins forgiven. That's what happens after you believe. So once repentance about Jesus and who he is occurs and faith follows, the believer comes to understand that their sins are blotted out and the times are refreshing ensue.

That's when... Well, maybe that comes, right? Maybe you still think that you can, you know, do confession to get rid of your sins. You know what I mean? Like maybe that's where the... Playing church games, yeah. Yeah, the non-growth kind of starts. Exactly.

Or the staying right in that. Not realizing that your sins are blotted out and still trying to let it work. Because all of that happens. Once you believe and you understand, I mean, you believe in the Lord and you become saved, all that is true of you, you may not totally understand it.

Right. It's true. And then you take a whole lifetime figuring out that it's true. To blot it out, we learn from the rest of scripture is that Christ death and resurrection and pay for all sins for all men for all time. Right. So I mean entering into the position of belief you have to come to the point realizing it's not only your sins of yesterday but your sins of today and tomorrow are also forgiven. And that's part of this growth path. Right?

Jeremy you want to say something? Well I was just going to say I think I would posit that repentance is faith. When he's talking about repentance, he's saying you were not believing who Christ is, now you start believing. So to separate repentance from the act of faith. I'm okay with that, I really am. Changing our mind Is that equal to faith? It could well be. I don't think we have enough understanding from scripture to say that those are exactly the same, but they may well be. But I'm just pointing out, once you change your mind, then faith gets enacted. And then you're saved. Then you realize your sins are blotted out. And there's no baptism here. It's repentance and your sins will be blotted out.

And the fact that he suffers is important to know. We can turn to the Hebrews passage just to see that, but of course we see that throughout scripture. And the promise that God will send Jesus Christ, whom heaven must receive first, By the way, in John 12, it tells us that going to the right hand of God is a necessary next step before the kingdom age ensues.

So this idea of the Jews looking for their Messiah, for the Jewish kingdom to be proclaimed and enacted at this time, but the Lord is still at the right hand. He hasn't come back yet. We have no idea what the timing of that is. Here we are 2,000 years later.

But anyway, going to heaven is part of the agenda and that's what this verse proclaims and we can see support for that elsewhere in scripture. And the millennial kingdom with Christ enthroned and we have a verse in Matthew and his enemies his footstool and that's of course Psalm 110 is beautiful in terms of the position of the kingdom age in terms of Christ making the enemies his footstool is well documented scripturally and we don't have to have to take a look at that. Now some interpret this passage to indicate that the kingdom age will occur only when the nation of Israel as a whole repents. However, this isn't their decision to repent. This is entirely God's timing. And I think if you look at the events that lead up to this, we see particularly in Zechariah that ultimately There's a lot of unbelievers who get cast out, and God preserves the Jewish nation through the tribulation, and then establishes kingdom based on those who believe going forward. But I think the interesting thing about this text here is that this refreshing also represents, we think of the refreshing to the Jewish nation as the kingdom age, but I think the refreshing also relates to the spirit led rest and joy of the Christ life.

So in John 16.7 Christ says I have to go to the cross, I'm paraphrasing, I have to go to the cross because the comforter can't come until I'm out of here, until I've been crucified and resurrected and put at the right hand. The comforter will follow. Margaret reads 16.7 if you have that. So this refreshing is not only kingdom age oriented, the refreshing of the individual Jewish believer in fact is a twice life film of joy, hope and rest. Nevertheless I tell you the truth. Expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you.

I mean, the Holy Spirit, you mean how he just finished the other class on the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit we can talk about, you know, for weeks and weeks and months and months. But one of the things about the Holy Spirit is that that perfect peace and rest that only he could give. And that cannot occur until the crucifixion and resurrection.

Jeremy? I think one of the things that for me is a big challenge in AXIS, where it's trying to draw a distinction between kingdom teaching and grace, church teaching. And it would be nice if it was this sudden line where, okay, Pentecost happens, now it's all church. But you look at this passage, and I think it's pretty evident that he's talking about the kingdom here. So yes, there are analogies to our spirit grace life that we have, but looking at the context of this passage, I think he's specifically talking about kingdom teaching to the Jews that are there. I think you're right there. I'm just bringing up this other aspect that relates to the individual believer. Well, that's definitely true. Because we talk about the seed of Abraham. In fact, let's move there. Well, wouldn't that be the Jews then would no longer be under the law? So wouldn't that be rest? I mean, because there is a change at that point in time, isn't there?

That's right Holly, but I think what Jeremy is saying is that Peter is addressing non-believing Jews and trying to be convincing in his arguments of what their responsibility was and what it is now to get a change in mind, get saved and move on forward with the Kingdom Age ultimately prophesied. All I'm saying is that I think the end of the passage comes back to Jeremy's point to support the idea that it's they may not have understood this, and likely didn't, and I think the Kingdom Age is what's being emphasized.

It's just there's a personal relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ that's part of the seed of Abraham that goes beyond the Jewish nation. So, I don't know if we want to read all this, but two messages here in terms of the last four or five verses. The Kingdom Age for Israel is for those not utterly destroyed by unbelief. And Revelation deals with those that are destroyed by unbelief. And God's blessing is to all of Abraham's seed.

So first Moses prophesied this, then Samuel. And by the way, Samuel in first Samuel just prophesied that David will replace Saul. But if you turn to the second Samuel passage, chapter 7, 12 through 16, it does really relate to the kingdom age. Abraham's seed includes the sons of the covenant that God made with Abraham, and the Genesis passages deal with that very succinctly. If you look at Galatians and Romans 4, Abraham's seed is us.

So again, the Jew, Jeremy, I think you're right, probably didn't look at this passage from that perspective in terms of what Peter was trying to tell them. Meaning that the seed of Abraham was anything but them. I mean, they're very self-centered people, right? Like we are too, but the Jewish nation really thinks it's all about the Jew. But yet I don't think it's incorrect to think that there could be some personalization of this truth that relates to each individual Jew who comes to be saved. And Abraham's seed, again, we're all part of it. We could turn to the verses in Romans 4. We have a few minutes. Let's look at the Romans 4 passage 13 through 18.

For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath, for which there is no law, for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom ye believed, even God, who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. who contrary to hope and hope believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken so shall your descendants be. So we all know that concept and again whether that was appreciated by this audience keep in mind these are not saved people Peter is addressing but I think as we look at the benefit of them coming to change their minds and getting saved that this is an outcome that may have been entirely possibly related to the individual believer and we know that it is. Then my final point is Israel will be blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ and turned from their sins.

In Matthew, the prophecy there, Romans restates it. And this is the stage set for Christ's reign on earth. And that's where the Zechariah passage becomes reality. So let me summarize. And it's kind of like Burns' passage summarized. What's he call it? To summarize, Israel through ignorance and unbelief rejected their Messiah but are continuously called upon to change their minds about the Lord Jesus Christ and by faith realize that God's promise about the kingdom and I put kind of in parenthesis, and their own lives too, will be fulfilled. However, what ensues is all mediated by God through Jesus Christ and their and our believing Him and all that has been revealed. For now, believers, formerly Jews and Gentiles, need to keep looking down and live by faith.

So that's just something I added on at the end. I don't agree with the looking down part. Because I know that thing. And to me it seems like if we're in the heavilies, why bother looking down? You know what I mean? I like that. Why bother? You look to Christ. Yeah, really. What's down here to look at? I like that, Holly. But I'm sure not looking up. Yeah, I'm looking next to me. Okay, Tom has a point. Okay, Tom. If we are in the heavenlies with Jesus we would have the mind of Christ and his mind is that all men should be saved and comes in the knowledge of the truth not just who ever happens to be there right now. So satisfying.

So we should be looking down for more believers. there is a lot packed into the second sermon of Peter's for sure. I think Jeremy's point is a good one that in context is probably most of Kingdom Age directed but keep in mind now that the Jew who becomes A believer is now a believer and not a Jew. Just like the Gentile who is a believer. Paul deals with that extensively in many of the epistles.

Let's close with prayer. Father thank you for your word and for the study that we can just look into it and just see where things began and where things are now. I just thank you for that. We ask for the next service and we open up our hearts and minds to that. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.