ACTS 109           

 

     Through Peter and John, God healed a lame man who sat for years begging in front of the temple. Everybody knew him. So it created quite a stir when he got healed. Peter addressed the crowd of Jews that gathered, charging them with Jesus’ murder. Then he told them to change their minds about Jesus (repent) because God was going to send Him back to establish the "times of refreshing" that all the prophets talked about.

     Notice how "Jewish" Peter’s speech is. It would make no sense to a Gentile who didn’t know about the Old Testament prophets or the Jewish fathers. In fact, it doesn’t make much sense to most Gentiles today either for that very same reason. Let’s continue with Peter’s speech, as he quotes Moses from Deut 18:15-19.

22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet (Jesus) shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; (Moses and Jesus both did miracles and delivered, or will deliver, the nation Israel from under Gentile rule.), him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.

23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people. (Ez 20:35-39)

     This destruction is physical death as well as spiritual. (Is 1:28; 4:2-4; Amos 9:9,10; Luke 21:20-24) Every unbeliever in Israel will die, so all surviving Jews will be righteous. (Rom 11:26,27) No wonder John spoke of the wrath to come! (Mat 3:7,10,12) And Peter said to save themselves from their doomed generation.(Acts 2:40)

     In contrast, Paul says that we in this dispensation are "delivered from the wrath to come" (I Thes 1:10; Rom 5:9) by the event of I Thes 4:13-18. Paul’s letters start with "grace and peace from God ..." reflecting God’s attitude to the world today. After our dispensation, it will be "judge and make war", (Rev 19:11) as prophecy picks up right where it left off in Acts.

     Think about what this says. All the prophets foretell Christ’s coming, the tribulation and His kingdom. And it was happening back then in Acts! They were in the "last days". (Acts 2:16,17) If prophecy had not been interrupted, those very people in Acts would have gone through the tribulation and into the kingdom. Our time period would never have happened and the world would be living under Christ’s reign right now. But God delayed His wrath in order to accomplish an additional purpose. See Rom 9:22-24.

 

25 Ye (Jews) are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, (God never gave His word or covenants to Gentiles in the Old Testament; Ps 147:19,20; Eph 2:12) saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed (Christ) shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. (Gen 22:18; Gal 3:16)

     The promise of a "seed" started in Gen 3:15, right after Adam sinned. That promise was narrowed down to Abraham’s seed, then to his son Isaac (Gen 26:1-4), then to his grandson Jacob (Gen 28:10-14), and finally to King David (Ps 89:29). Jesus came from the family of David. (Mat 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38)

 

26 Unto you (Jews) first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.

     Historically, salvation was sent to the Jews first. (Rom 1:16) They had God’s word and promises. See Mat 10:5-8. Jesus told the twelve, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Later this commission was to be broadened to include Samaria and then the world. (Mat 28:18-20; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8) In the earthly kingdom, the Gentiles will learn of God from Israel, (Is 2:1-3; 60:1-3; Zech 8:22-23), so Israel must first be blessed before the Gentiles can be.

     This is not the case in our dispensation. (Rom 11:11-15; Gal 3:28,29 & 6:15)

 

     How would God turn Israel from their iniquities? By giving them His Spirit, which would take over their thinking and cause them to stop sinning. (Review Acts 1:5,8; 2:4; 3:19) Then they could get all the blessings of the law, instead of the curses. (Deut 28:1-14,15-68)

 

     The next chapter will show how the leaders of Israel responded to God’s offer.

4:1 And as they (Peter and John) spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, (a Jewish sect who did not believe in a resurrection, Mark 12:18) came upon them,

 

2 Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. (Religious leaders do want to loose their power over people, so they do not want people to hear truth. Truth sets men free. John 8:32)

 

3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. (They threw Peter and John in jail for the night.)

 

4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

     Let’s do some math. In Acts 1:15 there were 120 believers, in Acts 2:41 there were 3000 added, and here, about 5000 more men were added. By this time there were at least 8120 in the "little flock" (Luke 12:32), ready to receive the kingdom, plus all the old testament saints who will be resurrected . (John 5:25; Dan 12:2)

 

     Next we’ll see God the Holy Ghost speak to the leaders of Israel through Peter.