Acts 3:17-26 | A Call to Repentance

While our nation was bought at a price of men and women, Peter preaches a liberty bought with better blood. The same God Who ruled and reigned while Israel was ignorant in 33 AD is the same God Who ruled over Philadelphia in 1776 and He rules over Camdenton today.

We are looking at three points from Acts 3 today to receive the freedom that is in Christ. I will focus on the text from 17 onward, but I want to start the reading at verse 12. Please stand with me in honor of God’s Word as we read Acts 3:12-26

12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. 14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. 17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 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. 22 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. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Well, our text begins with Peter tenderly addressing the accusations he has laid against his brothers. He uses the word “brethren” or adelphoi”. I want you to think about Peter for a moment because he himself denied Christ and needed the same mercy he is telling the Israelites is available in Christ. When you get the opportunity to share the Gospel you get a chance to share the same mercy you have received.

Peter even says that they “acted in ignorance”. This lines up with what Jesus said on the cross.

34 And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Its not that the people didn’t have the opportunity to know. Its that the path to knowing Christ was neglected. Imagine for a moment that a driver runs a stop sign. They didn’t take notice of the sign and maybe they didn’t even see it, but they are still guilty. And this leads us to the first point:

Ignorance Is Not An Excuse For Rejecting Christ

Their rejection of Jesus was not based on Who He is but it was based on not understanding what they saw.

24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

53 And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there, 54 and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55 Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56 And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”

So what Peter does is he shows that even though they are ignorant, they are also culpable. That means deserving blame and yet Peter shows that there is real mercy available for them despite the fact they deserve the blame for killing the Author of Life. Peter doesn’t soothe their conscience, he shows their condemnation and the mercy they can have in Christ. Listen, you are more guilty of your sin than you think you are and you are more welcome at the feet of Christ than you deserve.

Notice also in verse 18, that God foretold all the events, including the people’s ignorance. It was decreed that Christ would suffer and this fulfilled the prophecies. Acts 2:23

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

It was through God’s sovereign plan and their free guilty actions that God brought about redemption. So do we reject fatalism? Yes. Does human freedom limit God? No. God brings all things to happen according to His will and plan by using the free choices we make.

Seven weeks before independence was declared, a Presbyterian minister named John Witherspoon, the only ordained clergyman to ever sign the Declaration, preached this same doctrine to a nation staring down a war. He said, "Men are not generally sufficiently aware of the distinction between the law of God and his purpose; they are apt to suppose… that the outrages of the sinner are able to defeat God's purpose; nothing can be more false."

The same hands that killed the Author of Life fulfilled exactly what God had spoken through every prophet. Free, wicked choice. Sovereign, certain plan. No tension in God's mind, even though there may be tension in ours.

But if ignorance does not excuse and sovereignty does not cause, then what remains? Not despair. The Gospel is not a message of despair, but hope! Peter doesn’t leave them in their guilt but calls them and us out of it.

Repentance Is a Verb, Not a Feeling

Look at the commands that Peter gives “repent and turn back” the King James and other translations say “repent and be converted”. Luke uses this verb extensively to describe a radical reorientation of our life. It’s not simply a feeling of regret, but a redirection. Repentance is a real, active change of mind and direction that the sinner is commanded to do.

This is not a call to an emotional experience, but it is a surrender to the Author of Life! This command to repent and turn has a promise of forgiveness. “That your sins may be blotted out”.

22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Eighty-seven years after Hancock's Congress called for a day of fasting, the nation Witherspoon and Hancock helped build was tearing itself apart. In 1863, with the Civil War at its worst, Abraham Lincoln did not call the nation to a feeling. He called it to a fast. He wrote: “It is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon."

Genuine repentance. Not a feeling or a mood. Not a moment of national sentiment. Lincoln called for an actual day. Normal businesses stopped, the doors of the church opened, sin was confessed out loud. That is exactly the verb Peter is using in verse 19. Turn back. Stop. Change direction.

But hear me carefully: nations do not repent. Only souls repent. Lincoln could set apart a day, but he could not repent for a single citizen because each man still had to confess his own sin in his own home or he had done nothing at all. And that is precisely what Peter will not let Israel escape. He does not let them hide behind Abraham's covenant, behind Moses, behind their fathers. Every soul who will not listen to the Prophet shall be destroyed from the people, he says in verse 23. Every soul. Not the nation collectively. You, individually. Have you repented, or have you only felt bad?

We can have forgiveness because of Jesus’ perfect life, death, burial and resurrection. So now, your record of debt is cancelled when you repent and trust in Christ! You are not seen by your sin when you trust in Christ. You are not defined by what you have done. You are not seen by God by your unfaithfulness or lies. God does not see you as an enemy or a murderer when you trust in Him but He sees you as forgiven, redeemed and clothed in the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ!

It is like when King David who broke God’s Law when he sinned with Bathsheba. He committed adultery, bore false witness, coveted, murdered, didn’t love God supremely. David said in Psalm 51:9

9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

How can God do that? David repented of His sins and turned to the Lord. He had to trust that God would save him because he knew that he could never keep God’s laws perfectly. He knew God didn’t delight in the blood sacrifices. He had to believe forward in time to know that God would send the Messiah. Now, we have the benefit of looking back at Christ Jesus

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Have you ever been forgiven? Do you remember the weight being lifted off of your shoulders? Man, it is the absolute best thing in the world! Peter declares this in verse 20 “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. This word “refreshing” only appears here and in the Septuagint, which Christ read, in Exodus. Exodus 8:15

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.

So the sense here is relief from God’s justice. God has given to us, in the new covenant, a time of refreshing. The New Covenant in Christ is open for a time and there are two possibilities of its openness closing for you: either when you die or when Christ returns. You do not get to make a last second decision. The times are now and the promise is the return of Christ, “that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,”

Now… what does this “restoration of all things” mean? It could be that God is genuinely offering the kingdom to Israel, but the nation rejected it and so this points to a time in the future when national Israel will turn to Jesus but in the meantime it is given to the Church.

It could be about a future renewal of creation with the new heaven and new earth that is declared in the new covenant that doesn’t depend on Israel, but Christ. Both of these interpretations are sincerely held to by Christians even within our church but here’s what both sides agree about: repentance is the way to Christ and He will return.

But the repentance and the refreshing are not Peter’s entire sermon, he actually grounds this call in covenant history and this leads us to the third point

Your Heritage Is Not Your Hope

Peter quotes Deuteronomy 18 and it shows that Moses was expecting a better prophet, a better Moses. And there’s three reasons Peter cites this: 1) Moses himself announces this which would help the Jews to understand, 2) Moses himself warns about rejecting the prophet because “the soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed”, and 3) refusal to accept Jesus as the Messiah is refusing the warning Moses gave.

Notice that while this message was to the Jews, this lands squarely with each individual as well. We all must respond to the message of Jesus Christ and not trust in our own heritage. There is no greater crime than to reject Jesus. The Jews did and mercy was offered but only those who receive Christ receive mercy. Everyone else is still condemned. Do not be condemned any more! Run to Jesus! Turn to Christ! Repent and believe the Gospel today.

In fact, all the prophets spoke about Christ. From Samuel, the last judge and prophet, to the covenant of Abraham which was was a covenant of faith found in

18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”

Why is Peter quoting this promise in the Old Testament in a Gospel presentation about rejecting Jesus? It’s because the promise to Abraham is not the offsprings, but the Offspring! Paul makes this clear in Galatians 3:15-16

15 To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.

Now, of course there are advantages to heritage. The Jews had the law, the promises, the prophets and Peter says so in verse 25. Heritage is real, and it is a gift.

But listen to me: heritage never saved anyone. Benjamin Franklin is proof of that. Franklin was born the youngest son of the youngest son, five generations deep into a Boston Puritan family so devoted to the faith that they nearly sent him off to be trained for the ministry. By his own account, he had read the entire Bible cover to cover by the time he was five years old. He sat under Puritan preaching his whole childhood. Real preaching, doctrinally rich, gospel-saturated preaching. If heritage alone could save a man, Benjamin Franklin was saved before he ever lost his baby teeth.

Here's what he tells us himself, in his own hand: "My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the dissenting way. But I was scarce fifteen, when... I soon became a thorough deist."

Do you hear that? All that heritage. All that memorized Scripture. All that praying mother, catechized childhood, covenanted church and Franklin walked out the other side building his own thirteen virtues to stand on instead of the righteousness of Christ. Heritage did not save Benjamin Franklin, and heritage will not save your children, and it will not save you. Some of you grew up in church. Some of you know the hymns or were dedicated as children. Some of you have parents or grandparents who loved Jesus. None of that can repent for you.

This is especially important for us to remember this weekend. You see, you have been blessed by living in the USA. Many of you enjoy the privilege of being raised of have been raised in a Christian home. Some of you have known the Gospel your entire life. But none of these beautiful stories of heritage are enough to save your soul. It’s only by hearing the Gospel of Christ and obeying the Gospel by responding in faith that you can have hope.

I talk with my own children often about owning their faith. My faith is not enough to save them. Christ must be personally responded to.

Look at verse Acts 3:26

26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Look at the order: you have been blessed because you have the opportunity to turn from your sins and trust in Jesus Christ. Christ came to bless and the way He did that was not primarily though healing the sick, blind, lame, deaf, mute. His primary purpose was not teaching or exorcising demons. Jesus Christ came to live a perfect, sinless life and die for sinners like you so that you could be saved by trusting in His death and resurrection. This is the gift. This is the blessing that was sent to Israel first and now is available to all who would trust in Him!

So what have you learned today? Peter let Israel know that their ignorance did not excuse their guilt in killing the Author of Life, buthe let them know that there was mercy available, not just judgment. That mercy is not received by feeling sorry; it is received by repenting, actively turning from sin that no one else can do on your behalf, whether the "someone else" is a nation's leader or your own church heritage. We also learned that Abraham's promise was never given to a bloodline or a family tree, it was given to one Offspring, Christ, which means the covenant you were born into, however real a gift, cannot stand in for the covenant you must personally enter by faith. Ignorance does not excuse you, feeling does not save you, and heritage does not hold you only turning to Christ himself does.

Head: God wants you to know that nothing you were born into can replace personally turning to Christ.

You can have the right parents, the right church, the right confession memorized word for word and still be as lost as the man who has none of it. Heritage is not a substitute for a soul that has turned.

Heart: God wants you to believe that you are more guilty than you feel, and more welcome than you deserve.

Your conscience is not a reliable judge of your standing before God. It will let you feel fine when you're not, and it will let you feel disqualified when Christ has already made you welcome. Believe what He says about you over what you feel about yourself.

Hand: God wants you to stop trusting in your heritage and trust in Jesus Christ today.

Not someday, when you feel ready. Not when your kids are older and you've modeled it long enough. Today, because now is the only day you are promised, and it is the day of refreshing Peter is offering you right now.