Peter's Sermon After the Lame Beggar was Healed - Part 3

Well, let's take our Bible. Let's turn back to Acts chapter 3. Acts chapter 3, we're going to be in verses 19 to 26, but we're not going to cover all those verses. We will only cover verses 17 and 19, and we'll spend the majority of our time in the first part of verse 19. Now, it has been a few weeks since we have been in our study through the book of Acts and our study in the verses that are before us. So let's make sure we remember what we have here in chapter 3. Really, there are two basic things. First, we have the first apostolic miracle. It was recorded by Luke in verses 1 to 10.

We have the healing of the lame beggar, which we covered back in January, specifically January the 22nd. And then second, here in chapter 3, we have the second apostolic sermon recorded by Luke, verses 11 to 26. We have the sermon that Peter preached as a result of the healing of the lame beggar. And we covered half of those verses in two sermons in verses 11 to 18. But getting more specific, that is getting into the sermon part of the chapter. I want us to see what I have emphasized in the part of the sermon that we've covered so far. We covered verses 11 to 18 in part 1 and February the 5th, and part 2 on February the 12th.

Now, in our part 1 of Peter's sermon, after the lame beggar was healed, we saw the immediate context of these events in this sermon. This miracle took place at the gate of the temple, which was called the beautiful gate. And Peter's sermon took place as the healed beggar was celebrating, and he was clinging on to Peter and John there in Solomon's portico. And when Peter addressed the crowd that had gathered because of the great attention caused by the healing, Peter addressed them as men of Israel. And then later on, he addressed them as brothers. And what these details tell us is this. This was a Jewish audience.

This was a Jewish context thoroughly. And this was and is my point here. The immediate context of these events and this sermon was Jewish. These were Jews worshiping at the temple. That is why Peter addressed them as men of Israel in verse 11 and brothers in verse 17. So that immediate context dictated the content of Peter's sermon. That is why in our part 1, I pointed out that Peter emphasized the names of Jesus in those verses. As he addressed the crowd of Jews, Peter pointed out that Jesus was God's servant. He said that Jesus was God's servant who was Jesus. He said that he was the holy and righteous one as well as the author of life.

And he was God's suffering servant. Now notice and remember how this all comes together. These names and descriptions of Jesus were all from the Old Testament. So Peter was using the Old Testament scriptures that they knew to preach to them that Jesus was the promised Messiah of God as seen in those scriptures. But then in part 2 of Peter's sermon there after the lame beggar was healed, we saw that Peter made personal application to these who were listening personally. As Peter was preaching and emphasizing the names of Jesus, Peter gave them what R.C. Sproul calls a scorching denunciation.

He boldly confronted them with the fact that they denied Jesus who was and is the holy and righteous one. He also confronted them with the fact that they delivered him over to Pilate to be killed in exchange for a murderer. They actually handed over the author of life to be killed in exchange for one who had taken human life. And Peter confronted them with the fact that they were truly guilty of crucifying God's promised Messiah. And what that tells us is this. Peter was personally making personal application of all of these things to the Jews. This was a scorching denunciation. And this was and is my point. These were Jews.

So that is why Peter made such a scorching personal application. That is why he denounced them as he did. Now notice and remember how all of this comes together. Peter preached the names and descriptions of Jesus from the Old Testament and they knew the Old Testament scriptures so they should have known who Jesus was and that made his personal application a scorching application and it made it very very damning. Very very damning. Now some application here. Really some lessons. In our witnessing when we share the gospel again we've got to know our audience. We've got to know our audience.

And also when we witness we must use the scriptures and we must point out the truth that our audience certainly knows with our children as they're growing up and is with our teenagers who are not converted. We share the gospel with them and we take the scriptures that they know the things they've been taught the things that they've heard in our church and we apply that scripture to them as we press them in with the gospel. But remember those who do not know the Bible maybe they deny the Bible. We start with Romans 1. Men and mankind are held by the creation the revelation of God and the creation.

Romans 2 15 says the law of God is written on their heart and Ecclesiastes 3 11 says that eternity is put in the heart of men and men so we can go to those verses with your truth and we can press them with those truths. And when we witness we we know our audience when we use the scriptures and we do this to make personal application to them. Here's something we guard against. We don't preach to the choir. You know what it means to preach to the choir. Years ago in the life of my home church I can remember we had a visiting preacher and he was preaching and he was kind of getting excited and he was stomping and hollering and spitting.

You know how guys can do. And someone in the life of the church said he's just preaching to the choir. He's not making application to anybody in the life of the church that applies to those out there. So what I'm showing you is this no matter who it is we take the scripture and we make personal application just like Peter did. And if you have some questions about how to do that I can help you. Now tonight we're continuing with Peter's sermon after the lame beggar was healed. So this is a part three.

Now I'm going to read verses 17 to 26 but we're going to really look at verse 15 to 19 because that's taking up it's going to take up so much of our time. So let's pick up with verse 17. And now brothers I know that you acted in ignorance as did your rulers. Talking about the Jewish rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets that's the Old Testament prophets that his Christ would suffer thus he fulfilled. Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. Verse 20.

That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may 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 and you the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your forefather 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.

Now before we get into the next thing that Peter preached in this sermon I want to point out a transition in Peter's approach and demeanor. I think you'll see it. R.C. Sproul says that Peter's sermon was a scorching denunciation and it was. He goes on to say that Peter pointed a finger in their faces and he actually did with words. Warren Wiersbe says that Peter announced their crime. He presented the evidence and explained the nature of their sin. Those descriptions are accurate. That is what Peter did.

But starting in verse 17, Peter became more personal and sympathetic and he shifted to offering them the possibility of a pardon for their grievous sin and sins. Notice that in verse 17 he calls them brothers. And what we see here is this. Peter was identifying with them. He was saying to them I am one of you. We are fellow Jews. We are brothers in the Jewish faith and in the Jewish way of life. And then also in verse 17 he pointed out that they acted in ignorance. Although they were certainly guilty of grievous and serious sin, Peter was showing them that they were guilty of sin committed in ignorance.

This is exactly what Jesus did when he was on the cross. In Luke 22, 34, we see that Jesus prayed for those who were actually crucifying him. He prayed saying, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." And then the rest of the verse there in Luke says that they begin to gamble for his garments. I like how Warren Wiersbe describes Peter's transition and change here. He uses the analogy of an attorney and a judge. He says, and I'm quoting him here, "What a strange thing for the prosecuting attorney to become the defense attorney and the partnering judge.

Peter's burden was to encourage his people to trust Christ and experience his gracious salvation." Now there is a tremendous and much needed lesson here. When we witness to the loss, yes, we must be the bold prosecuting attorney just like we see here with Peter, but we must be loving. We must be compassionate, even identifying with those that we are witnessing to. We must always be a prosecuting attorney even being fierce. While at the same time, we must be a defense attorney who is encouraging the loss to put their trust in Christ just like we did.

Now this reminds me of some people that I went to church with years ago in my home church and they were zealous to witness. They loved to go out and witness and share the gospel in the public sphere. Oh, they were very, very good at being fierce. They were very good at being bold. They were very good at being the prosecuting attorney, but they lacked the encouragement. They lacked the love. They lacked the compassion and therefore they were rude, overly rude, prideful, and arrogant and they turned more people off. So let's make sure we have balance here.

Now let's continue with Peter's sermon and I want us to examine what he preached or what he continued to preach holding on to the fact that he makes a shift in his demeanor and approach. And out of verse 19, I want us to see that Peter called these who were listening, these Jews, to do two things and then I want to point out one positive consequence. So notice, number one, he called them to repent. That's very obvious. He called them to repent. Look back at verse 19. Peter says, "Repent therefore and turn back." And notice that no matter the translation you have, Peter's using the word or we see the word repent.

Now this is what I want us to do here. I want us to look at the meaning of the word and how these Jews should have reacted. So first this word, repent. In the original, this simply and literally means to change one's mind. This means to change one's mind, to change one's purpose, and even one's direction. But we have to understand what this call to repentance was connected to. Generally speaking, in the scriptures, repentance is seen as a change of one's mind, a change of one's heart, and purpose and direction as it relates to sin.

But specifically speaking, or here in this context, Peter was calling them to repent, to change their mind, their heart, their purpose and direction as it related to Jesus, their rejection of Jesus, and their guilt in all that had just unfolded before them in the sermon. So Peter was calling them to repent of their sin and sinfulness, and specifically how they had rejected Jesus, and how they were personally guilty of having him crucified. But before we move on, we must see what this repentance is not. This was and is much more than sorrow for what they did.

Peter was not calling them to do what Paul called or to express what Paul spoke of as worldly sorrow or worldly grief. In 2 Corinthians 7, 10, Peter differentiated between godly sorrow or godly grief and worldly sorrow or worldly grief. He said, "For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death." Now the point I'm making right here is this. There is a worldly sorrow, a sorrow that is from sinful man. It is disingenuous and it does not lead to repentance. But there is a worldly sorrow or a sorrow that is from God and produced in a man that is genuine and it leads to repentance.

And the point I want to make here is this. Peter was not simply calling on them to be sorrowful. He was not simply calling on them to be greedious. He was calling them to a godly sorrow that would lead to repentance. Now this leads me to a lesson right here. We must see and understand that repentance is both a command and a gift. Let me repeat that. We must see and we must understand that repentance as seen in the scripture is both a command and a gift. Clearly we can see that repentance is commanded here in Acts 13, 19. Peter was clearly commanding them to repent and to trust in Christ for their salvation.

But verses like Acts 11, 18 and 2 Timothy 2, 25 tell us that repentance in relation to salvation is a gift from God. Now what we have here is a mystery. This is a seeming contradiction. Scholars call this an antinomy and an antinomy is this. We have two facts that seem like a contradiction but they're not. And what that teaches us here is this. We urgently call the lost to repent. We show them that they are responsible to repent. We urgently pray that God would grant them the gift of repentance in their salvation. But then we wait to see God produce that work.

And we accept the fact that godly sorrow produces repentance which leads to salvation but worldly sorrow does not produce repentance and it does not produce salvation. So Peter was calling them to repent of their sin of rejecting Jesus as their Savior and their Lord and their Messiah. But then second, I want us to see the repentance and how they should have reacted. Now we could move on here but there is something that I believe we need to see right here. John MacArthur points out something that I think is very important. I'm really taking his words and making it my own.

But repentance in the true meaning of repentance was not new to this crowd that Jesus was preaching. Remember the context. Peter was preaching to Jews. Simply repentance and the preaching of repentance is easily seen all throughout the history of the Jewish people. As God called and enabled the Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel to prophesy to rebellious and sinful Israel, they preach repentance and call the nation to repent of their rebellion and apostasy and idolatry. John MacArthur points out that 2 Kings 17, 13 summarizes the sad history of God's dealing with Israel.

That verse says, and I'm quoting, "Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer saying, 'Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with all of the law that I commanded your forefathers and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.'" Simply what we see in the Old Testament is the fact that the ultimate purpose of these Old Testament prophets was to preach repentance to the nation and to the work of bringing them back to God or face judgment. But notice that this did not change in the New Testament.

As John the Baptist came onto the scene to the nation of Israel, we need to ask what his purpose was in his message. John came to the nation of Israel and John's purpose was to prepare the nation for the coming Messiah and in so doing, John's message was a message of repentance. We clearly see John's purpose and message in Matthew 3, 1 to 3. The text says, "In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make his paths straight.'" Simply what we see at the dawn of Jesus' earthly ministry is the same thing that we see all throughout the Old Testament Scriptures. John the Baptist came preaching a message of repentance to the nation of Israel to prepare them for God's promise Messiah. Now, what is my point here? When Peter called these Jews to repentance, this was no new concept.

Repentance was no new message because they knew the Old Testament Scriptures and under the power and the work of the Holy Spirit, the message of repentance would have stirred them up to see and understand and remember what the Old Testament said and it would have stabbed them into their hearts and minds so as to produce godly repentance in them. So notice what we have here. As Peter transitions in his approach and even in his demeanor, he moved from being the prosecuting attorney to becoming a compassionate defense attorney and a pardoning judge. He offered them pardon through the work and the gift of repentance.

Now, what should we learn here for our day? We are not Jews, we are not Peter, so what can we learn here? First and foremost, we must understand repentance. Simply we must understand repentance and understanding repentance is vital. We must understand the difference between worldly or sinful sorrow that does not produce repentance that leads to salvation. Our churches are sadly full of people who have expressed worldly sorrow, cheap sorrow, man-centered sorrow. That's not led to repentance and led to salvation.

We know people in our families who have cried crocodile tears of worldly sorrow but yet there's no repentance in their lives and we must understand that godly sorrow that comes from God is what produces repentance and that produces salvation. And look, repentance is a command and an expectation from God but repentance is a gift and a work of the Holy Spirit of God in the center. You might say pastor that's confusing. Two facts but yet they are not contradictory even though they seem contradictory. And notice what a healthy biblical balanced understanding of repentance produces.

First, it produces a call, a burden to call people to their responsibility to repentance. Second, it produces a dependence on the Holy Spirit of God to work out repentance in people's lives. Third, it produces a dependence and a prayer life that calls on God to work in the heart of the lost to do what they cannot do alone, you see. And then number two, he called them to return. That's easy to see. He called them to return. Now let's look back at verse 19. The English standard says repent therefore and turn back but notice the new American standard, the legacy standard Bible uses the word return.

The new American says repent therefore and return. Now many scholars that I read and many who preach verses like this would probably take this return and repentance and put it all together and just move on quicker. But I don't think we need to do that. Although the repentance and returning that Peter was preaching of, although this is connected, I want to divide it and then I want to tie it all together. But this is what I want to do here. I want to look at the meaning of the word just like we did with repentance and then I want us to see what this meant for those Jews. So first, this word return.

This simply and literally means to turn to, to return to, to make a transition. But we have to understand what this call to return was connected to. Generally speaking, this returning is a returning to, a turning to, and even a transitioning to God. But specifically here in this context, Peter was calling these Jews to return to God. Now notice the impact of this returning. Peter was calling a people to return to God who believed in every way that they had never ever turned away from God. These Jews that Peter was preaching to, they were going to worship at the temple, right? We see that in the verses.

They were keeping the Old Testament scriptures. We know that. The religious leaders constantly told Jesus that. They were God's chosen, God's covenant people. So in their eyes, they had never ever turned away from God, but truly, and in every way they had rejected Jesus. So therefore they had turned away from God. In John 856, Jesus told the Jews who were rejecting him that Abraham had by faith, rejoiced to see him in his day. So simply he was saying that if they were true descendants of Abraham, they would have worshiped him like Abraham did.

And in Romans chapter 9 to 12, those chapters are all about how the Jewish people in the nation of Israel had rejected Jesus as the promised Messiah. And as a result, they had turned away from God, the God that they said they followed. So what needs to be seen here is this, the very second that these Jews who were God's covenant chosen people, the very second they rejected Jesus, they did in fact turn from God. And Peter was calling them to return to God. But then second, I want us to see how they should have reacted to this return. Now think with me about their reactions.

Most of the Jews and the Jewish leaders had rejected Jesus and what they saw as some new false religion and a perversion of the Old Testament scripture. The gospels and the book of Acts tell us this fact as well as other New Testament scriptures. But in light of what Peter had preached, they should have seen the legitimacy of Jesus and the fact that he was indeed the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, but alone left to themselves. They could not see their departure from God in return because they were spiritually blind to their sin and sinfulness.

Just like Paul says in Ephesians 2, 1 to 2, these Jews here were spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins. They were actually living and following according to the course of the sinful world and following the Prince of the power of the air, the devil. But we must see that Peter and God held them accountable for two things. First, God held them accountable for rejecting and denying and even crucifying Jesus. That's what we see in the first part of the message. But second, God held them accountable for the message that Peter preached. Peter had preached truth and they were responsible to accept the message that he preached.

Now notice how this applies today. All people have turned away from God. Many have a knowledge of God from their knowledge of the Scriptures. They have a knowledge of God from the work of the church that they've come into contact with. They have a knowledge of God because they have come in contact with true Christians. And when the lost who have knowledge of God in these areas reject God, they are turning away from much truth, much like they are turning away from God. So they must be called to see the truth and the light that they have rejected. But there are those who have never heard of God. They've never seen a Bible.

They've never heard the gospel, but they have turned away from God as well. Romans chapter one tells us that all mankind has the testimony of God from the creation. Romans 2 15 tells us that all men have the law of God written on their hearts. And Ecclesiastes 3 11 tells us that God himself put eternity into the hearts and minds of men and men. So the point is this. Those who have never heard of God, they've never heard the gospel. They've never seen, heard, or read of God in the Bible. They have turned away from God as well. And so the lesson for us that we must see here is this. All men, all mankind have turned away from God.

It's just a matter of what light they have rejected. So they must be called to return to God. So notice what we see here. Peter had transitioned into his in his approach, in his demeanor, and he had moved away from being the prosecuting attorney to becoming a compassionate defense attorney, even a pardoning judge. And he offered the pardon through the work and the gift of returning to God. Now notice how repentance and returning are connected. I divided them, but now let's see how they are connected. When one repents, they repent of sin and sinfulness.

They change their mind, they change their heart, they change their purpose, even their direction in relation to sin and sinfulness. And when one repents, they return to God with a new mind, with a new heart, a new purpose, and a new direction. They turn from sin and sinfulness, and they turn to God, and they truly return to God, and the God they have abandoned. Listen to how the amplified reads in verse 19, or the first part of verse 19. So repent, change your inner self, your old way of thinking, regret past sins, and return to God, seek his purpose for your life.

And clearly, this repentance and returning is a responsibility and a gift and a work of God. Now before I move on, I want to show us another lesson here. When we call people to repentance, yes, we call them to turn from their sin and their sinfulness, but we must call them to return to, or turn to, God. We can't separate the two. We can't leave one off. A returning to God without repentance will not lead to conversion. A repentance without returning to God will not lead to conversion. Now starting with verse 20 and continuing on to verse 26, we read those verses earlier.

We have the consequences of this repentance and returning, and the consequences of their reaction to Peter's sermon. But what we have here are some difficult and contested verses. Here we have verses that deal with eschatology or the end times. Now this is how I'm going to proceed tonight. I will speak of the immediate consequence, and then next week we will dive into verses 20 in the following verses, because we really do not have time to cover all of that tonight. So number three, he called them to see that forgiveness was possible. It's real simple. He called them to see that forgiveness was possible. Look back at verse 19.

I want to read it in the legacy standard Bible. Peter says, "Therefore repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away." Now on the surface, it is easy for us to see that Peter was explaining that if they would repent and return to God, they would be forgiven of their sin. That certainly was the case. It's obvious. But I want us to see what is behind the surface. Again, Peter was using language that they knew from the Old Testament. This term wiped away. The King James uses the phrase "blotted out." This was a term used all throughout the Old Testament. This is found in Isaiah 43.25.

Brother Keith read this earlier in our scripture reading. Psalm 51 verse 1, David uses this term. We see this term in Jeremiah 18.23, Nehemiah 4.5, Isaiah 44.22. Now what is my point? Again, Peter was using language and ideas that were certainly found in the Old Testament. So this should have gotten the attention of those Jews. Now it's amazing. Notice something. Peter simply used the Old Testament to preach Jesus to the Jews. It's kind of almost like the Old Testament fits with the New Testament. That's because it does. But the meaning of this phrase is interesting.

The Bible scholar Albert Barnes points out that this expression was used in their day of creditors charging debtors. And when their debt was paid, the debt was canceled. It was totally removed. He says that this word referred to the practice of writing on tables covered with wax and then by inverting the tool used for writing for smoothing out the wax again, therefore totally removing every trace of the record. John MacArthur points out that in their day, unlike the ink that we use in our time, the ink that they use did not have the ability to soak into the papris or the vellum that they used like we use paper.

So simply the ink remained on the surface. Therefore it could easily be wiped away. It can be removed. Any trace of the record could be removed. Now what's the point? Peter was calling these Jews to repent from their sin and to return to God so that the record of their sin and sinfulness could be wiped away. He was calling them to repent and to turn back to God so that their record of their sin could be completely white clean. And in his confession of his great and grievous sin, David prayed the very same thing. We see this in Psalm 51 verse 1.

David said, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out, wipe them clean." That's what he's saying. "Blot out, wipe clean my transgressions." And we know that he had many in relation to his sin with Bathsheba. Now in application I want to point out two things. First, cleansing from sin and the written record of one's sin can only be wiped clean from repentance from sin and a returning to God. How many people think that they have forgiveness from their sin because of decisions they've made? Maybe they were baptized? Maybe they have a church membership? Fill in the blank.

How many people think that they have forgiveness from sin? They think their sin is done away with because of many other things, so many things, besides repentance and a returning to God. But then notice second, those who have not repented from sin and returned to God, they are still responsible for the written record of their sin and sinfulness. Revelation 20 verse 12 speaks of this written record of sin. Yes, a written record of sin. John wrote and he said, "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which was the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done." Here we have the book of life and the books of the deeds that are done in the flesh. And those names who were not written in the book of life, they will be judged by what they did. They will be judged by the deeds done in the body, that list of sins. And what we need to see here is this. There are many people who believe that somehow, some way, they are forgiven when actually they are not forgiven, and that list of sin and sinfulness is getting longer and longer and longer.

And by the way, that list of sin and sinfulness involves deeds, words, thoughts, motivations, you name it. Now at this time, I want to pause right here. But notice what we see here in this part three. "Peter's sermon after the lame beggar was healed. He was calling them to repentance and to return to God." Now I want to close in two ways. If you're here tonight and you're not converted to Christ, if you've not been forgiven of your sin, you need to repent of your sin and return to God. You could be as religious as anybody in here. You could be an external Christian and be very good at it.

But if you've not been born of the Spirit of God, if the Spirit of God has not come into your life and enabled you to do what you cannot do, that is to repent of your sin and turn from your sin and turn to God, and evidence that that's happened is that you continue to live a life of repentance. If that's not happened to you, you're still amassing a record of sin and sinfulness. Please come to Christ. But also, we need to see that we have many lost around us and we must call them to repentance and to return to God all the while we are looking for God to do what only God can do, bring them to the place where that can take place.

So Peter's sermon after the lame beggar was healed, and I think we are seeing more and more that there certainly is a lot here.