Would you open your Bible please to the book
of Acts the third chapter? Human beings have
always been fascinated by the future and what
it holds Therefore there are some who make contact
with spirit mediums Others who become involved
in the reading of palms or the examination, if
you can believe it, of the intros of slain animals.
There are some who become involved in astrology
or in the popular horoscopes in newspapers these
days. There are some who read after such modern
-day so -called prophets as Gene Dixon. People
have always been fascinated with the future and
what it holds. Somehow we think that we might
be better off if only we knew what was going
to happen tomorrow. I'm not sure that's true.
Nonetheless, only God can really give an answer
to this search for tomorrow. You see, God is
eternal. God sees all the events of history.
and tomorrow as finally accomplished. God, because
He is God, knows the outcome of all present struggles.
He has fixed a course for the ship of humanity
so that it will ultimately arrive at its appointed
destiny. certain freedoms to work their own purposes
and evil, there is no question as to the outcome
of all things finally. One of our young men asked
me about that after the first service this morning,
how it could be that we are not robots, we are
free, as he put it, to have a free will. yet
that God is ultimately in control of all things,
including human history. I recognize that that
seems to present a difficulty in logic, yet both
are true. Maybe one feeble attempt at illustration
is what we used to do on the farm. We would have
cattle, of course, who would graze in the pasture
all day, and then at night it would be time to
get them for milking. One of us kids would be
assigned the task to go get the cows. So we would
take off cross -country to find them and would
bring them back. In order to get from the pasture
up to the barnyard, we had a lane. That lane
was fenced in so that they could not get out
into the fields on either side of the lane. The
lane was about 12 to 15 feet wide. And within
that lane, they could do anything they wanted
to do. They could walk on this side or the other
side or they could run or they could walk. They
had freedom. But the fact remained that they
were in the lane and ultimately they were going
to get to the barnyard. You see, that's sort
of the way it is with our freedoms and God's
sovereignty. God has outlined the lane of human
history. certain freedom, and Satan has certain
liberties to do what he wishes to do. Ultimately,
human history will arrive where God says it will.
God is sovereign in human history. He is in control.
That fact is illustrated in this sermon that
Peter preaches on the occasion found in Acts
3. Last week we looked at the first half of the
sermon. So, we want to pick it up at that point
where we left off and continue through the conclusion.
We'll start with verse 17. And now, brethren,
I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your
rulers did also. But the things which God announced
beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets,
that is, Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled.
Repent, therefore, and return, that your sins
may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing
may come from the presence of the Lord, and 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. The Lord God shall raise up for you a prophet
like me from your brethren. To him you shall
give heed in everything he says to you, and it
shall be that every soul that does not heed that
prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among
the people." Likewise, all the prophets who have
spoken from Samuel and his successors onward
also announced these days, who are the sons of
the prophets, and of the covenant which God made
with your fathers, saying to Abraham, And in
your seed all the families of the earth shall
be blessed. For you first, God raised up his
servant, and sent him to bless you by turning
every one of you from your wicked ways." It seems
to me that the main theme in Peter's The last
half of this sermon is that God is in sovereign
control of human history. There are three summary
statements from this text which seem to illustrate
this truth that God is in control. The first
one is in this statement, God's plan was fulfilled.
In other words, in the death of Jesus Christ,
God's plan was fulfilled. There are two lines
of truth which run parallel in our text. Israel
bore responsibility for her rejection and killing
of Jesus of Nazareth, but it was God who predicted
the suffering of His Son and planned for it.
Those are two lines of truth that run parallel,
and in human logic they would seem to contradict,
and yet they are not contradictory. Let's think
about them. Israel bore responsibility for the
killing of Jesus, their Christ. We see that in
earlier verses in this very sermon, for example
in verse 13. He explains that Jesus is God's
servant and he says, you delivered him up, disowned
him. In verse 14 he says, you disowned him and
asked for a murderer to be granted you. In verse
15 he says, you put to death the prince of life.
Now he's talking to a group of Jews representing
the nation. He says, you have killed your Christ.
You have rejected Jesus of Nazareth. the one
God appointed for you as the anointed one, the
Christ, the Messiah. This ties together with
what he said back in chapter 2 verse 23 when
he said, you nailed Jesus the Nazarene to a cross
by the hands of godless men and put him to death.
And so Israel, you see, bore responsibility for
rejecting Jesus as Messiah. Yet, in verse 17,
Peter generously states that this rejection was,
notice, in ignorance. It was in ignorance. The
Apostle Paul later in chapter 13 of Acts, on
another occasion, yet speaking to Jews, says
something very similar listen to these words
of Paul to those who live in Jerusalem and their
rulers He says rather for those who live in Jerusalem
and their rulers recognizing neither him Nor
the utterances of the prophets which are read
every Sabbath fulfilled these by condemning him
So Peter says as a nation they were ignorant
Paul says they didn't recognize him. They didn't
understand the prophets. And so it was in ignorance,
without recognizing Jesus Christ, that the Jewish
people rejected him. Does not that tie together
beautifully with what Jesus himself said from
the cross? Has he hung there in agony? He prayed
and he said, Father, forgive them. For what?
What is he saying? They know not what they do.
They know not what they do. On the other hand,
there is an interesting statement just a few
chapters later in chapter 7 of Acts which again
seems to Contradict this. These are the words
of Stephen, who was the first martyr of the Church.
Stephen in 751 of Acts says, You men who are
stiff -necked and uncircumcised in heart and
ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit. You
are doing just as your fathers did. Which one
of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?
And they killed those who had previously announced
the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers
and murderers you have now become. You who received
the law as ordained by angels and yet did not
keep it." And so the tone of Stephen's sermon
is that you knew what you were doing. And that
seems to agree with what Jesus warned about in
Matthew chapter 12. When he spoke to a group
of Pharisees in that day, whom he suggests knew
him, recognized him, and who were nonetheless
attributing his power to Satan, he said that
they were becoming guilty of the unpardonable
sin, which is attributing to Satan the work of
the Holy Spirit. Technically, that unpardonable
sin could only be committed in that day when
Jesus was on the earth manifesting who he was.
Jesus seems to indicate there in Matthew 12,
just as Stephen does much later in Acts 7, that
there were at least some who did recognize him.
When they willfully rejected him, that was the
unpardonable sin. They could not be forgiven
for that. There was no hope for them. I say to
you that the unpardonable sin technically cannot
be committed today, but by application we can
say this, that when a person understands who
Jesus Christ is, understands his need of Jesus
Christ, and yet deliberately, willfully rejects
Him and turns from Him, and does that persistently,
consistently, There comes a point when his heart
is hardened to the truth, and at that point he
is committed an unpardonable sin because there
is no pardon apart from the truth that he has
hardened his heart to. That's why, my friend,
it is so dangerous for a person to understand
what it means to be saved and to hear the truth,
intellectually accept it as the truth, and yet
to harden the heart against it. It brings damnation
to the soul through the process of the hardening
and rejection that takes place. Now it seems
to me that what on the surface seems to be a
contradiction is not at all a contradiction,
for it appears that there were some in Israel
who did recognize Jesus for who he was, who he
claimed to be, and they rejected him. and were
left without hope. But the nation as a whole,
the totality of the people as a corporate body,
they did not recognize Jesus. They were in ignorance,
really, as to who He was. And because of that
ignorance, the culpability The nature of their
crime against God is moderated, ameliorated,
it is lessened. And because of that, there is
still hope for the nation as a whole. And that's
why there are promises given in the very text
that we're looking at, and we'll look at just
a little bit later. as a whole rejected Jesus
the Christ, that would have been it for Israel.
There would be no future for them. And yet there
is a future, as we shall see, for the nation.
Yet the truth is still there that they bore responsibility.
You see, though they as a whole did not know
who he was, they should have known it. Even the
sign of the Prophet Jonah, Jesus' resurrection,
was given to them. They should have recognized
him. There was no excuse for their ignorance.
Thus they were held responsible for his death
on the cross. But the other line of truth, as
we have suggested, is that God predicted that
suffering of his son and fulfilled his own plan
in it. Again, this is what Peter has stated earlier
in chapter 2 when he preached on the Day of Pentecost.
Jesus of Nazareth, who has been attested by God,
was delivered up by the predetermined plan and
foreknowledge of God. On the one hand, there
is human Jewish responsibility for the rejection
of the Christ and his death. On the other hand,
it is God's plan from eternity past before the
creation of the world. Jesus was designated to
be the sin bearer for all. So there is human
responsibility, there is divine plan, and the
point is that God's plan was fulfilled. God's
plan was fulfilled. This presents, I say again,
an apparent contradiction, but is in fact the
working out of the plan which God ordained. He
executed it in such a way as to accomplish his
desired result without overriding man's responsibility
in it. Another illustration of that quickly is
Judas, who betrayed Jesus and was responsible
for his crime, and yet God predicted hundreds
of years before that there would be one of the
disciples. Who would betray Jesus? That was in
the plan of God, and yet Judas bore the guilt
of it. God is ultimately in control of human
history, and we see that in this summation statement
that I am making that God fulfilled his plan
in the death of Jesus Christ. He says, But the
things which God announced beforehand concerning
the Christ, He's fulfilled. Now there's a second
summation statement that I want to make, and
that is this, that God's promise is offered.
His promise of the long anticipated Messianic
kingdom is offered here in our text. It is offered
to the Jewish nation. Now that millennial reign
of the Messiah is described in two phrases. You
may want to underline them in your Bible. Verse
19, the times of refreshing. Verse 21, the period
of restoration of all things. Those are two phrases
describing the same thing that is the millennial
reign of the Messiah. The times of refreshing.
What does that mean? Well, the verb. for refreshing
literally means to cool again, to cool again.
I can illustrate this by an experience that I
had when I was working in a dairy plant in Topeka,
Kansas between two of my years in college. My
normal job besides being the general flunky around
there for three months, was to help make cottage
cheese and to package it. And that was done in
an area of the plant that was very warm. It was
warm because it was secluded in the plant, but
it was warm as well because that was the nature
of the beast. That's how you made that kind of
food. And so I worked there and would develop
a great deal of perspiration. I would be fatigued,
be hot, be sweaty. And then the foreman would
come in and he'd say, call. They need your help
over in the ice cream freezer. So I would leave
that part of the dairy plant temporarily and
go across the street where we stored the ice
cream. And that temperature was something about
like it is outside today here in Minnesota. It
was frigid in there. And so I would have about
five minutes to make the transition. I'd have
to find a coat somewhere and some boots and gloves
and bundle up and go in there into the 20 below
temperature and begin to move around ice cream.
Now for the first five minutes, I was cooled
and refreshed. After that, I froze to death.
But for the first five minutes, it was a wonderful
refreshment after being over there in that hot
dairy plant. to be able to step into the world
of the freezer. One of that kind of a feeling
is what's involved here. He says it's the time
of refreshing for the nation of Israel. He's
talking about the fact that the nation of Israel
will in that future kingdom find relief and rest
from her harassment. And basically for the last
2 ,000 years the Jews have been kicked around
from one nation to another in this world. They
have been persecuted, driven from one country
to another, hated, killed, harassed, and I say
with genuine sorrow in my heart that the worst
is yet to come for them. When Antichrist is active
in the tribulation period, it will be the time
of Jacob's trouble, a time like the Jews have
never yet seen even under Hitler. And following
that will come the kingdom. Following that horrible
time of harassment will come the times of refreshing,
the times of revival, the time when the nation
will be at rest, the golden age of blessing.
That's what's involved in that phrase. But he
also calls the kingdom the period of restoration
of all things. This word restoration is the same
basic word that's found back in chapter 1 verse
6, where here the disciples are asking a question
of Jesus and they use the same word in a verb
form and they say, Lord, is it at this time you
are restoring the kingdom to Israel? Same basic
word. What it's referring to is that time in
the future when the nation will be restored,
brought back again to a place of world prominence,
and even more, to the place of God's blessing.
Because she rejected her Christ, Israel has,
for this dispensation, this age, been set aside
so that God could fulfill another purpose of
His, and that is the Church of Jesus Christ,
to call out that body from Jew and Gentile that
belonged to Christ. But there is a time coming,
my friend, when the nation of Israel will be
restored. and not just Israel. But the whole
earth will be restored. Even the creation, nature
itself, will be recovered to its Edenic beauty.
This is suggested in Romans 8 where we see that
the creation itself now is under bondage to sin
brought upon it by man and it emits as it were
a groan. longing for and anticipating that day
when the sons of God are manifest and it will
be released from its corruption to enjoy that
restoration of the millennial kingdom. Notice
these two phrases for the kingdom sandwich that
which will bring the kingdom, verse 20, the return
of Jesus Christ. It is when Jesus, the Christ
appointed for Israel, is sent to them and returns
to the earth that the kingdom, the times of refreshing,
the period of restoration will come. Now, that
is a little word about the millennial reign.
But looking closer at the context, it would seem
to me that here the kingdom is being offered
to Israel at that time. Peter is suggesting to
the Jewish people that this time could come at
that point if they would do two things. He gives
those in verse 19, two commands, return, or rather
repent and return. He says, repent and return
to them. Repent, of course, means to change the
mind. He says, change your mind regarding Jesus.
Understand He is the Christ. Renounce your sin.
Forsake the guilt which has grieved and offended
God. Repent. It's the same thing He said on the
day of Pentecost. Repent and be baptized, every
one of you. Change your mind. Then He says, return.
as well. Turn again to the Lord. That is the
action that results when one changes the mind.
It is a word used by Jesus regarding Peter in
Luke 22, 32 when he says to Peter, and when you
turn again, regarding Peter's denial of the Lord.
He's talking about that time when Peter recognized
what he had done and changed his mind and repented
and turned again to the Lord. It is a word that
Peter himself uses in 1 Peter 2, 25 when he says,
and you have returned to the shepherd and bishop
of your souls. Now he says if the nation would
return and repent, there would be an immediate
result. This is the purpose of it. He says in
Repent, return that your sins may be wiped away.
That was the immediate purpose in his saying
this to them. It was for the forgiveness of their
sins. Before the kingdom could come, sin had
to be dealt with. This verb, wiped away, is a
very suggestive verb in the original language.
It means to obliterate, or to wash, or to cancel
a debt, or to wipe away. And in that sense, I
can give you an illustration. In that day, they
did not write on paper as we do today, but they
recorded what they wished to write on papyrus.
The papyrus was a material that was made from
the papyrus plant. They would strip out the pith
from that reed plant. They would cut it skillfully
into strips and would lay the strips one on top
of another, forming an interlocking pattern.
They would then take that piece of material and
soak it in a certain way. and lay it out to dry
under pressure. And the result of that was the
papyrus, the material on which they would write.
And the kind of ink they had at that time would
not sink into the papyrus. Today, our ink is
made with a certain kind of acid so that it,
as they say, bites into the paper. And it's permanent.
But at that time what they used for ink would
just lay on top of the papyrus and it would dry
there. But even years later, if you were to take
a wet sponge and wipe it across that material,
you would destroy all the writing. The ink would
simply lift right off. It would be wiped away.
And that is the verb that's used here. What he's
saying is that God will wipe clean. the record
of your sins. Do you have the assurance, my friend,
before God, that your record has been wiped clean?
God desires to do that for every one of us, and
he can do it because of the blood shed on the
cross of Calvary by Jesus Christ. Peter said
to those Jews at that time, repent and return
so that God can deal with your sins. And then
he says, the kingdom can come, and he'll send
Jesus the Christ. You say, now wait a minute,
you're saying the kingdom was offered at that
point, and yet God had another purpose, and that
was the church, and that had to be fulfilled,
so was this a legitimate offer? Yes, it was a
legitimate offer to the nation, hypothetically.
And that is that if the nation had repented and
returned to the Lord as Peter had preached to
them, the kingdom would have been established.
But the facts of history are different than that.
The reality is not hypothetical. The reality
is that the nation did not do what he said, and
therefore God's plan from eternity past, again,
was accomplished. And he is involved today in
calling out a different body, a distinct body
from Israel, the Church. And yet God's promise
was offered to the nation in that day. God is
sovereign in history. He offered His promise
to the nation. They did not accept it. They were
responsible for that decision. And yet, in making
that decision, they fulfilled His plan and program.
That brings us to the third summation, which
illustrates this truth that God is in the sovereign
control of history. God's program will yet transpire.
You say, well, what is God's program? Well, it's
in part what we've talked about, the restoration
of the nation of Israel, but it's more than that.
It is blessing to all of the nations of the earth.
God is not content to bless only the Jews. Indeed,
God's program is to bless the Jewish people so
that through them He can bless the whole world,
all of the nations of the earth. Peter is saying
in essence, we are a remnant, we who have believed
in Jesus, we are a remnant of the nation, and
we are speaking to you with the authority of
God himself. Now to do that, Peter had to be
able to go back into Israel's history and tie
himself in. And so he draws a line of continuity
here with himself in that day to three of the
persons and periods of Israel's history which
are most important. The first one is with Moses.
Now he mentions, you notice, the ancient prophets
in verse 21, or the holy prophets rather in ancient
time. He mentions one, Moses. And he illustrates
from a passage found in Deuteronomy, chapter
18 verse 15. He says, Moses said, the Lord God
shall raise up for you a prophet like me. Give
heed in everything he says. That prophet, of
course, is the Lord Jesus Christ. We understand
that. But frankly, the Jews didn't. by their
leaders, they understood that this prophet that
Moses talked about was one person and the Messiah
was another. But that is illustrated in John
chapter 1 when some religious leaders came to
John the Baptist. And the first thing they said
to him was, are you the Christ? He said no. And
they said, well, are you then Elijah? Come back.
He said, no, I'm not. They said, then, are you
the prophet? He said, no. You see what they were
doing there? They were asking him questions in
light of the theology as they understood it.
They said, are you the Christ? No. Are you the
prophet? No. They expected two different people.
But in God's plan, the two were combined into
one. The Messiah, the Christ, is the prophet
that Moses talked about. And that is Peter's
point. He says, God is going to send a prophet
like me. What in the world does that mean? Well,
I think it could mean a number of things. In
the first place, like Moses, Jesus is the mediator
of a covenant, a better covenant, the new covenant.
Like Moses, Jesus Christ is a spokesman for God.
Indeed, more than that, the very revelation of
God Himself. Like Moses, Jesus Christ is a Redeemer,
but better to say the Redeemer of His people.
Moses delivered God's people from Egypt. Jesus
Christ is the deliverer of God's people from
sin. And yet Hebrews 3 makes it clear that in
every respect Jesus Christ is superior to Moses.
But there are some respects into which He was
like Moses. And Moses warns them. He says, you
give heed to everything he says. That shows the
ultimate authority of everything that Jesus Christ
spoke without exception. And he goes on to warn
them that if anyone did not give heed, he would
be cut off and destroyed. That is the warning
that Moses gave. to the Jewish people. Jesus
Christ is that prophet that Moses spoke about,
says Peter. Now, what period is he talking about
here? Well, he's talking about the period of
David primarily. That's when Samuel ministered
at the beginning of the kingdom, when there was
a king in Israel. David was, of course, the most
revered of all of the kings. And Samuel anointed
David. One of his successors, Nathan, announced
to David the promise of God that his seed would
have an eternal reign. And that seed is Jesus
Christ. That's probably what Peter has in mind
as he says this. And he's saying that those prophets
in David's day had these days, says Peter in
mind. What days? The days of the impending reign
of David's son. And then he goes back to Abraham.
He couldn't do any better than that to the Jew,
the most revered of all the patriarchs. He says,
now you. are the sons of the prophets and of
the covenant which God made with your fathers
saying to Abraham and in your seed all the families
of the earth shall be blessed." So he ties what
he's doing on this occasion back to Abraham and
refers to this revered patriarch and he says,
God made a covenant with Abraham. to bring blessing,
and you are the sons of Abraham. But I want you
to notice what Peter does. He quotes the promise
found as it is in Genesis 22, 18, where he says,
all the families of the earth shall be blessed,
not just the Jews. But he goes on to say, now
to you first, God raised up his servant. And
that's always been God's pattern to the Jew first
and then to the Gentile. He says to you first,
God raised up his servant. He sent him to bless
you. And how were they to be blessed? By turning
them from their wicked ways. That's how blessing
comes when we turn from our wicked ways. And
yet the record is that Israel did not turn from
our wicked ways. She persisted in them, rejected
God's servant. And so Israel was set aside. Now
my point in going through all of this is simply
to say that God's program for history will be
fulfilled. Ultimately Israel will repent and
return to the Lord. She will be restored and
refreshed and will enjoy the blessing of the
kingdom. Now listen, when that happens, All the
families of the earth, all the nations of the
earth will be involved in the blessing of that
kingdom. God's program will ultimately be fulfilled.
Nothing can stop it. Not the devil, not liberal
theologians, not worldly government powers. not
the Arab block that is against Israel. There
is nothing in heaven on earth or in hell below
which can keep God's ultimate program from occurring.
Why is that? Because God is sovereign in history.
Now the sermon is over and so is mine. I want
to I'll mention three closing observations and
applications quickly. Number one, from Israel's
example, we see this lesson. The greater one's
privilege and knowledge, the greater his responsibility.
Why was God so severe upon Israel when she rejected
her Christ? because she above all the peoples
in the world had privilege and revelation from
God and should have understood what God was doing.
And the greater the privilege, the greater the
understanding, the greater the responsibility
to God. Or as Jesus put it, to whom much is given,
much shall be required. Now listen to me. You
and I who live in this age have privilege and
understanding which far surpasses anything Israel
knew. You and I have the Spirit of God living
in us. so that we can go into the very presence
of God Himself, every one of us. We don't need
a priest any longer. We don't need sacrifices
to be made. The sacrifice has been made. The
way into God's presence has been opened. We have
the completed revelation of God, Old Testament
and New, 66 books. All that God has desired to
say, He has said. God has spoken in His Word.
We have understanding of our times. We have understanding
of God. We have understanding of mankind that
they never had then. How much greater do you
think our responsibility is to God than the Jews
had? To whom much is given, much shall be required.
Therefore, dear people, we cannot afford to waste
life. We cannot afford just to go through life
casually, even carelessly. Life has meaning,
it has purpose, God has a plan for us, and our
business must be accomplishing the plan of God.
The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility.
William Barclay said, To have seen the full light
of the revelation of God is the greatest of privileges,
but it is also the most terrible of responsibilities.
And particularly you and I who live in this nation
and who have the privilege of attending a Bible
teaching church and who have the word of God
in our hands. We are the most responsible people
to God in the whole earth today. May God help
us. May God have mercy on us. May God get us
to that place where we are fulfilling the responsibility
that we do have before Him. Secondly, just as
Israel must focus upon the return of her Messiah
ultimately. So today I believe the focus of our
lives should be on Christ's coming. That is going
to be the climax of history when he returns.
It should be that which motivates us and purifies
us in our living to recognize that we are going
to be caught up in the air to see him, to be
with him, and to be like him. And as we said
two or three weeks ago, though we live in the
present and deal with our present circumstances,
let's keep focused on the future. We are a people
of an age yet to come. We are strangers and pilgrims
in this world. Let's not live for it. Let's not
pour out our lives for it, but let's pour out
our lives for Jesus Christ. It will be worth
it all when we see him.