15
Acts
Introduction:
Through
the ministry of Peter and John the Lord healed a lame man at one
of the gates of the temple. A large crowd of people gathered around them
in
amazement.
The Apostle Peter took advantage of this opportunity to tell them
that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ
of God. He told them that the death of
Jesus on the cross was in the plan of God
so that lost sinners could be saved.
In
this text Peter calls upon the people to repent and be saved.
I. The basis of Peter’s call for the
people to repent
V. 19, “Repent ye therefore...” The word, therefore, refers back to the
things that had already been said. It refers back to the guilt of the people,
who had taken a major part in the
crucifixion of Jesus. The people had
joined
with the Jewish leaders in pressuring
Pilate to order the crucifixion of Jesus.
Back in verse 13 Peter called Jesus “the
Son of God.” In verse 14 he referred
to Jesus as “the Holy One” and as “the
Just One.” In verse 15 he told them that
they had killed “the Prince of Life.” Thus, Peter not only pointed out to them
that they were guilty of sin, but they
were guilty of an extremely enormous sin.
They had crucified the very Son of God,
the Christ, the Savior of men. It was
on the basis of the guilt of the people
that Peter called upon them to repent.
There is no need for one to repent unless
he is guilty. These people were
guilty.
They needed to repent.
The
word, therefore, as used in this verse also refers back to the obvious
great power of the Lord. The man who had been born lame and who for
more than
forty years had been unable to walk, had been miraculously healed and was there
before the people walking and leaping and
praising God. It was very obvious
that some mighty power had made him
whole. The Apostle Peter had informed
them
that it was not his power that made the
man whole. He also informed them that
it was not by John’s power that the man
was made whole. Peter declared to them
that it was by the authority and power of
Jesus, whom they had crucified, that
this man was made whole. He told them that even though they had killed
Jesus,
God had raised Him from the dead. It was the power of Jesus which had healed
this man and made him to walk. Since Peter, who was directly involved in the
healing, said that it was Jesus who had
made this man whole, how could the
people deny it? How could they even doubt it? To those people, it was obvious
that Jesus, who had worked so many
miracles during His ministry, had come back
to life and had now worked another miracle
before them. He had worked this
miracle without even being bodily present
with them. What mighty power He
possessed!
It was on the basis of the Lord’s mighty power that Peter called
upon them to repent. The same power that had healed this man could
now save
them from their sin.
The
word, therefore, as used in this verse also refers back to the
people’s ignorance of the fact that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God. Back
in verse 17 Peter had told them that he
was aware that they did not know that
Jesus is the Son of God. HE was aware that they had committed this sin
in
ignorance.
Peter used their ignorance to impress upon them that it was possible
for them to be forgiven of their sin.
The
word, therefore, as used in our text also refers back to the fact that
it had been in the plan of God for Jesus
to die on the cross. Back in verse 18
Peter stated that all of the prophets of
the Old Testament had prophesied of the
death of Jesus. God the Father not only knew about it in
advance, but it was
God who had planned it. It was God’s will for Jesus to die on the cross. The
people who were involved in putting
Him to death were guilty of a heinous
sin,
but God purposed to use their evil deed to
provide a way whereby all men could
be saved.
It was through the suffering that Jesus endured on that cross that
now they could be saved from the penalty
of their sins.
It
was on the basis of the fact that Jesus had suffered and died on the
cross that the Apostle Peter could now
call upon them to repent and be saved.
II.
What was involved in the call to repentance
As
I have already said, the word, repent, implies guilt on the part of the
people.
If one is not guilty he has nothing of which to repent. These people
were guilty and they very much needed to
repent.
The
word, repent, requires a change. It
requires a whole new attitude, a
whole new frame of mind. They would have to see themselves in a new
light.
They had looked upon themselves as being
righteous. They had somehow been able
to rationalize their sin and to see
themselves as being good people in the eyes
of God.
That had to change. They would
have to see themselves as guilty of a
very wicked deed . They would have to see themselves as being
unworthy of
heaven.
They would have to see themselves as deserving the most severe
punishment that a Holy God can bring upon
them. .
They
would also have to see God in whole new light.
They needed to see
that God is so high and so Holy and so
Righteous that He must punish every sin.
God would not just ignore their sin. God could not just overlook the fact that
they had crucified His Son. God is Holy and sin must be punished. Their sin
must be punished. In order for God to forgive them He had to
lay their
punishment on somebody else who would
willingly suffer in their stead. That is
why Jesus went to the cross. Jesus went to the cross in order that they
might
not have to suffer the penalty of their
sin. If they would repent of their sin
and place their faith in Jesus to save
them from their sin, then God would count
the suffering which Jesus did on the cross
as payment for their sin.
The truth of this is also to be seen in the
meaning of the word,
converted.
V. 19, “...and be converted...
The word, converted, means “To be
changed.”
They needed to be turned to a completely new direction. They had
been going in the wrong direction. They had been going against God. They had
not been against religion. They had been very deeply involved in
religion, but
they had been going against God. They had pitted themselves against the very
Son of God. They had rejected Jesus as the Son of
God. They had crucified Him
who is the very Son of God.
They
needed to make a complete change. They
needed to turn toward God and
to bve in harmony with the thinking of God
and with the will of God. They
needed to stop working against the Son of
God. They needed to accept Jesus as
the Son of God because He is the Son of
God. They needed to trust Him as their
Savior.
They
needed a complete change of their inner spirit.
This kind of change
can only come by being born again on the
inside. Their inward spirit must be
born again. Jesus had said that except a man be born
again he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. But if they would only turn to Jesus and
place their faith
in Him to be their Savior, then they would
be born again. They would enter into
the kingdom of God.
III.
The result of repentance
(V. 19), “...that your sins may be blotted
out...” I want to call
special attention to that word, sins. It is not a singular word referring only
to their sin of killing the Christ. It is a plural word which includes not only
their sin of killing Jesus, but all of
their other sins as well. Let me say to
you that it was no small blessing just to
have God to forgive their sin
involving the crucifixion of the Son of
God. That alone is a marvelous
thing.
But just think! It involved all the sins they would ever
commit. It involved
all the sins of their past life. It involved all the sins they had committed
and all the sins they would ever
commit. It involved all of the sins of
their
past, present and future. If all of their
sins were not blotted out then they
would still end up in the Lake of Fire and
Brimstone. If God did not blot out
all of their sins then the Apostle Peter
did not tell the truth about the
matter.
I
am persuaded that Peter told it just like it really is. I am persuaded
that Peter meant that if they would repent
of their sin and trust in Jesus as
the Christ that all of their sins would be
blotted out.
I
especially like that expression “blotted out.”
Their sins would not be
just
swept under a rug and temporarily overlooked only to be brought up
against
them at a later time. They would not ever be brought up against
them in the
judgment.
They
would not just be scratched through. I
know that sometimes in my
writing that I will scratch through a line
and start over again. But I can
still read the line that I scratched
through. But the Lord would not just
scratch through the sins of those
people. He would completely blot them
out.
He would even blot them out of His memory
so that they will never be brought up
again at the judgment. They would not be brought up ever again.
(V.
22), when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the
Lord;”
Once again I call to your attention a plural form of a noun. Note the
plural word “times.” To those people to whom Peter spoke it meant
that there is
a time of spiritual refreshment at the
time when they would first realize that
they were truly saved. When their burden of guilt was lifted and
they realized
that they would spend eternity with God in
glory, that would truly be a time of
rejoicing.
There would no longer be a great fear and dread of the judgment.
There would be peace in the soul. This is a great experience.
Yet
there would be other times of refreshing ahead.
In those times when
they would become depressed because of the
pressures of the world about them,
they would be able to turn to the Lord for
strength and consolation and the Lord
would bring a time of spiritual
refreshing.
Then
there is the great time which all Christians look forward to. There
will be the time when Jesus comes again
and calls our physical bodies out of the
grave and we will be victorious over death
and the grave. This will be a great
and marvelous time of refreshing.
Another
great time of refreshing will be in the millennial reign of Christ
when Jesus takes His place on a throne in
Jerusalem from which He will rule the
world.
I think this will be a great time of refreshing for all the
redeemed.
Still
yet there will be other great times of refreshing. For instance
there will be the time when the Lord will
melt this old world with fervent heat
and make a new earth and a new
universe. That great city, the Holy City
New
Jerusalem, a city not made with hands,
will come down from God out of heaven and
God will sit upon His throne in that city
and dwell upon the new earth with the
redeemed of all the ages. That will be something spetacular to see and
that
will be a time of great refreshing.
I
really do not know just what events will take place after that, but I
read in Ephesians that in the ages to come
God will show us the exceeding riches
of His glory. So I take it that there will be great times
of refreshing
throughout all the eternal ages.
IV.
The need for lost sinners to repent today
Just
as there was a great crowd of people in that day listening to the
Apostle Peter who needed to repent and get
saved, even so there are great hoards
of people in our world today who need to
repent and get saved.
The
Bible declares that we have all sinned and come short of God’s holy
standard of perfection. We have sinned in many many ways. We have sinned many
many times. We have not only come short of
perfection. We have come short of
anything close to good. The Bible says that all of our righteousness
is as
filthy rags in the sight of God. There is no way under the sun that we deserve
to go to heaven. There is every reason in the world why we
deserve to spend
eternity suffering for our sin.
But
thank God we have an opportunity to repent of our sin and be saved.
We have an opportunity to have all of our
sins blotted out. And I do mean all
our sins.
I read in I John 1:7 that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the
repentant sinner, the believer in Jesus
Christ, from every sin.
We
can make a complete turn about by repenting of our sin and calling on
Jesus Christ for forgiveness and
salvation. We can be converted. We can be
born again inwardly. When we call upon Jesus Christ and trust in
Him for
salvation.
He will hear our prayer and He will save us from our sin.
And
when anyone does call on Jesus and trusts in Him to save his soul a
time of great refreshing will come. There will be joy that your sins are
forgiven.
There will be joy that your soul is saved. There will be joy that
you will stay out of the Lake of Fire and
Brimstone. There will be joy that you
will spend eternity in glory with
God.
I
want to say to you that I have trusted Jesus Christ to save my soul and
I know I will be in heaven because I
trusted my destiny into the hands of Jesus
Christ.
There are others here this morning who also rejoice greatly because
they, too, have trusted in Jesus and they
are saved.
But
there may be someone here this morning
who has never had that
experience of calling on Jesus and asking
Him for salvation. If so, you have
never had the assurance in your heart that
you will spend eternity with Jesus.
Oh, I know that you can say to me that you
live just as good as I do. Or you
may be able to point to some other Christian
and say, “I live just as good as he
or she does.” But that will not get you into heaven. If you are ever going to
get to heaven, you are going to have to
acknowledge to God that you are an
unworthy sinner. And you are going to have to call upon the
Lord Jesus Christ
and trust in Him to save your soul and
take you to heaven.
Conclusion:
Are
you ready for the judgment day? If not,
are you ready to get ready?
Will you come thing morning repenting of
your sin and trusting in Jesus Christ
to save your soul?
If
you have already trusted in Jesus Christ and you are already saved, are
you pleased at the way you are serving the
Lord? Do you think the Lord is
pleased at the way you are serving
Him? If not, will you come this morning
and
yield your life to Him? If you are saved and you are in need of a
church home,
then come and make Pleasant Hill your
home.