Chapter 3

Peter tells a beggar lame from birth to get up and walk.  And he does.  The people in the temple - and there would have been a LOT of them since it was the "hour of prayer" - are astounded by this.  The beggar stays close to Peter and John, and people throughout the temple rush to Solomon's porch.  And Peter speaks for the second time.

Peter says that it wasn't he and John that did this in their own power.  He says that the God of them all glorified Jesus (I think this connotes Jesus as Messiah) yet they screamed for Barabbas to be released instead.  But even though they did that, God raised Jesus from the dead.  And faith in this same Jesus has healed the lame beggar.  Then Peter tells them what they must do:

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. [Act 3:19-21 ESV]

No mention of Baptism here, in the Temple, among Jews. 

2025 - Before our sins can be forgiven, we must repent of them.  It is not a simple acknowledgement of Jesus as a real historical figure that does it.  A change in belief does not resuscitate a dead soul.  It is the decision to FOLLOW, to BELIEVE, and to OBEY the teachings of Jesus, and to put away all "attachment" to worldly things - not just our sins and the lusts of our flesh but all things physical - and become slaves who have nothing and own nothing except for loyalty and belief in our master.  In this country we have so much difficulty in letting go of these things because in this country we have so much.

2025 - Note that vs 19  says "repent" and it says "turn back".  These are two very different Greek words.  Repent is metanoeo, and is about a change of mind.  It is to adopt a different moral position.  Metanoeo is pretty much exclusively translated as repent.  It is a change in the way we think.    To "turn back" is almost always about a physical turn.  It is to "come home", it is to reorient physically as in turning 180 degrees.  Taken together, we see that salvation requires both a change in  how we think and a change in what we do.  We don't get to "think rightly but act wrongly", nor do we get to "act rightly while thinking wrongly".  We surrender everything or we aren't done yet.

I don't know what "times of refreshing" connotes. 

I see that God will send Jesus, the Messiah, yet again, but not until the time for restoring all things.  That is, almost certainly, restoring the old covenant.

Then these words:

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.' [Act 3:22-23 ESV].

So Jesus was like Moses?  Is that what this is saying?  And those who reject Jesus are destroyed.  In what way destroyed?  Hell, surely, but that is eternal punishment, not destruction.  MSB notes say times of refreshing refer to the Millennial kingdom.  And destruction refers to losing covenant blessings because of rejecting the Messiah.

2023 - Peter is quoting Moses' prophecy of a future prophet like him, the prophet that all Israel expected.  There is much about this in Cullman's Christology book, and about whether Jesus claimed to be that prophet.  We see here, clearly, that Peter believed Jesus was that prophet.  Peter also believed Jesus to be the Messiah.  So...was this a new concept that this prophet and the Messiah were the same person?  Had they just not expected that at all?  John the Baptist fits in here because he was Elijah, if you will, come to proclaim the coming of the Messiah.  Elijah was therefore a prophet foretelling both THE prophet and THE Messiah.  Here is a lesson in evaluating the present according to the scriptures of the past.  It was only after the fact, and after Jesus' post-resurrection elucidation of the scriptures, and then on top of that the coming of the Holy Spirit to reveal all things, that Peter understood the real meaning of those very old prophecies, and he understood that he had seem them come to pass with his own eyes, AND that he was an integral part of their fulfillment!

2025 - Vs 23 is still in the same sermon!  The exclusivity of Jesus as the way to heaven.  If you do not listen to Jesus - the prophet that Moses foretold and whom God sent as promised - you will be destroyed.  There are no multiple pathways here.  There are not "many ways to heaven", and there never were.

2025 - This is also a good lesson on how to present the gospel.  First the requirements:  Repent.  Turn back.  Change your moral perspective, and change what you do.  Do this, and God blots out your sins and brings you into right standing with Him through Jesus' death and resurrection.  Third, try this by any other method, through any other "door", and be destroyed.  Nothing else will work.  You have to put the consequences of rejecting this gospel out there too.  You can't leave that part off.

This verse:

26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness." [Act 3:26 ESV]

Peter says the Messiah came to Israel first.  They rejected him though, didn't they?  Yet, many Jews in Jerusalem are saved.  3,000 that first day.  So Jews can be a part of the church.  Are part of the church.  Jews are included in Jesus' offer of salvation.  Relationship with God is what changed.  The relationship before was only via the Holy of Holies.  Instruction was only through the law.  But now, each man has a personal relationship, each is a priest in his own right, and the religious elitism of that time was squelched, and put aside.  Because it was being used to distance people from God, not to bring them into closer relationship with him.  Does that sound like any church today?  If it does, they are suspect, no matter how nice their hats and rich their robes.