16
Acts
Introduction:
In
this text the Apostle Peter speaks about the coming of Jesus Christ to
earth. He spoke of the fact that Jesus had come in
fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecies. He speaks also of Jesus returning to heaven
from which He had come.
He speaks, likewise, of Jesus returning
back to earth from heaven.
I.
The setting for the text
Perhaps
you will recall that when Peter and John started to enter into the
begging. Peter said to him, “Silver and gold have I
none, but such as I have
give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of
Immediately the man leaped up and began to
walk.
When a great crowd of people soon gathered around. The Apostle Peter
reminded
them that they had killed Jesus of
had been healed. He informed them that even though they had
killed Jesus that
He was no longer dead. Peter told them that Jesus is the Son of God
and that
God the Father had raised His Son Jesus
back to life again.
Peter
said that it was not by his own power that the lame man was healed.
He said that it was not by the power of
John that the man had been healed. He
told them that it was by the
power and authority of Jesus whom they had
crucified
that this man was made whole. That is,
it was by the power and
authority
of the living Jesus that this man was made whole. If Jesus were still
dead He could not heal the man,
but Jesus was no longer dead. The very
fact
that this man was there before
them walking and leaping was evidence that Jesus
was no longer dead. He was alive.
In
our text last Sunday Peter called upon these people to repent that
their
sins may be blotted out. Peter wanted
them to be saved so that they could
experience
the great joy of having their sins blotted out.
He wanted them to be
saved
so that they could experience all of the great joy in the future times of
refreshing
that he had spoken to them about which would come from the presence
of the Lord.
Let
me point out something right here that I think is very marvelous. I
think
that it is very marvelous that Simon Peter was concerned about the eternal
destiny
of these people. After all, these people
were guilty of helping to
bring
about the crucifixion of Jesus. And
Simon Peter loved Jesus dearly. It
seems
amazing to me that Simon Peter is so interested in trying to get these
people
to heaven who had been guilty of causing the death of Jesus. From the
human
standpoint we would understand if he had said to them, “I want you to
remember
that you put Jesus through a great deal of suffering. Now I hope you
burn in hell for putting Him
through all that suffering.” But that
was not
Simon Peter’s attitude at all. Peter was saying to them, “God wants you to
be
saved. Jesus wants you to be saved. I want you to be saved. I want you to
repent
so that all of your sins will be blotted out and you will get to enjoy
all of the times of refreshing
that will come from the presence of the Lord.”
In
effect, even in what Simon Peter has already said to them he has
promised
them that Jesus will return and that some day they will stand in His
very presence. In our text today Peter expands on that line
of thought. He
then gives them the assurance
that Jesus will return to this earth and that they
will see Him again.
II. The promise of the return of Christ to
the earth
V.
20, “And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto
you.”
The “he” in this statement is God the
Father. It was God the Father who had
sent Jesus into the world. It is God the Father who will send Jesus back
to the
world. Peter makes that promise very definite. “And he shall send Jesus
Christ....”
Peter
said, “...who was preached unto you...”
Those people could look
back on the ministry of John the
Baptist and recall that John had preached to
them that Jesus is the
Christ. They could look back on the life
and ministry of
the twelve apostles and know
that these men had for the space of three or three
and an half years been telling
them that Jesus is the Christ. Then,
too, at
least
during the latter part of the ministry of Jesus there had been an
additional
seventy preachers who had gone in pairs throughout the nation telling
the people of
lame man had been healed Peter
himself, had preached to them that Jesus
is the
Christ.
He had told them that Jesus had been raised from the dead. They, of
course, could not see Him, but they could see this
man who had been lame for
more than 40 years walking and
leaping and this was strong evidence that Jesus
had indeed been raised from the
dead. A dead man could not heal the lame
man.
In order for Jesus to heal the man, He had
to be raised from the dead.
Now
Peter says to them that Jesus will some day return. He said that God
the Father would send Him back
to earth. They need to repent now and be
ready
when Jesus returns, because
whether they repent or not He will return.
Whether
their
sins are blotted out or not, He will return.
If they will repent and have
their
sins blotted out there will be times of refreshing when He returns, but if
they will not repent and have
their sins blotted out there will be times of
anguish
and fear and sorrow when He returns.
III. His return to heaven
Yet
they need not look for Jesus to show up there in
present
time. If they were to go looking for Him
in the city or in the villages
around
they would not find Him. But just
because they would not find Him then
would
not mean that they would never see Him at all.
He would surely come, but
He would not come back immediately. V. 21, “Whom the heaven must receive until
the times of restitution of all
things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of
all his holy prophets since the
world began.”
It
was not in the plans of God the Father to send Jesus back to earth at
that time. Rather it was in the plans of God for Jesus
to return to heaven from
which
He had come. It was in the plans of God
for Jesus to remain in heaven
until
the time which God the Father has set for Him to return. He had come to
the world. He had come to His own nation,
own world and by His own
nation, but we can be sure that He had a glorious
welcome
when He returned back to heaven. He
surely received a great welcome by
the heavenly angels and He
surely received a joyous welcome by God the Father
who had sent Him to the world
to die for the sins of man. He must have
received
a joyous welcome by those
people who had already believed in Him and who were
already
there in heaven when He returned. He
must have received a joyous
welcome
by such men as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses, King David and others.
It was in the plan of God for Him to
remain in heaven until the time which is
already
set for Him to return back to earth.
Peter
said to them that Jesus had been preached to them. He is still
being
preached in the world today. It is true
that today we have not yet seen
Jesus.
We have not seen Him because He is still there in heaven seated on the
throne
of God at the right hand of God the Father.
He is there waiting for God
the Father to give Him the word
or the signal that it is time for Him to return
to earth. But He is still being preached to the people
of the world today.
And He is being preached by a lot more
preachers than just the twelve apostles.
He is being preached by a lot more
preachers than just the seventy who went
throughout
is being preached throughout
the
throughout
all of
the countries of
natives
in the
islands
of the seas. What is important to this
community is that He is still
being
preached here at
the world to be ignorant of the
gospel message. If anybody wants to be
informed,
there is somebody available to present the gospel message to him so
that he can be saved. God still loves the world and wants everybody
to be saved
and there are still Christians
around who are anxious to give them the gospel
message.
IV. Old Testament promises of His first
coming
Even
Moses of old had left his testimony concerning Jesus Christ for all
the world to see and read. V. 22, “For Moses truly said unto the
fathers, A
prophet
shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto
me; him shall ye hear in all
things whatsoever he shall say unto you.”
Moses
was talking about Jesus Christ
the Son of God. Moses was talking about
a
prophet
whom he said would be “like me.” Jesus
was like Moses in that there was
an attempt to kill them both
while there were but babies. It was the
pharaoh of
Herod who ordered the Hebrew babies killed
in and around
to kill Jesus Christ.
Jesus
was like Moses in that both of them were at one time rejected by
their
own people. Moses was rejected by his
own Hebrew people after he killed
an Egyptian trying to protect
an Israelite. The people said to him,
“Who made
you a ruler and a judge over
us?” Jesus was rejected by His own
people and was
crucified
by them.
Jesus
is like Moses in that both of them have delivered people from
bondage. Moses led the Children of
the bondage that they were
in. Jesus delivers men from the bondage
of sin when
they repent of their sin and
place their faith in Him to be their Savior.
Jesus
is like Moses in that both of them established a new religious
order. Moses was the founder of the Jewish law
system of worship. He was the
founder
of Judaism. Jesus is the founder of the
New Testament church system of
worship. He is the founder of Christianity.
V.
23, “ And it
shall come to pass, [that] every soul, which will not
hear that prophet, shall be
destroyed from among the people.” Peter
here is
simply
relating a warning which Moses had given concerning the Christ. Moses
had warned that those who would
not hear the Christ would be destroyed.
He was
talking
about the hereafter. He was talking
about being cast into the
Fire and Brimstone. Yet he was not talking about a destruction
which would
annihilate
them and put them out of existence. The
New Testament speaks of the
smoke
of their torment going up forever. He
was talking about the suffering
which
they would endure in the
This
warning should have struck fear into the hearts of the men. They had
already
been guilty of rejecting Jesus as the Christ.
They had accepted Him as
a great miracle worker, but
they had rejected Him as the Christ. For
a while
they had acknowledged Him at
least to be a prophet of God, but under the
influence
of the chief priests and scribes they had rejected that idea and had
wrongly
concluded that He deserved to be crucified.
Now, in the light of what
Moses had written, they could see that it
was themselves who were deserved to be
punished. In the light of what Moses had written, they
were in danger of
everlasting
punishment.
Yet
is was not Moses only who had written about the coming
of the Christ.
V. 24, “Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel and those that follow after, as
many as have spoken, have
likewise foretold of these days.” That
is, not only
Moses and other prophets before Samuel who
foretell of the coming of the Christ,
but beginning with Samuel there
was a continual line of prophets who foretold
His coming and warned the people to hear
and receive Him.
The
people to whom Simon Peter was preaching should have been familiar
with their writings and know
that they wrote about the Christ. V. 25, “Ye are
the children of the prophets,
and of the covenant which God made with our
fathers,
saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds
of the
earth
be blessed.” They should be familiar
also with the promise that God made
to Abraham concerning the
coming of the Christ. The promise was
that one of
Abraham’s seed, one of his descendants,
would be the Christ and that through Him
all of the kindreds
of the earth would be blessed.
V.
The purpose of God sending the Christ
Peter
did not hesitate to tell them that Jesus is the Christ of whom the
prophets
spoke and wrote. V. 26, “Unto you first
God, having raised up his Son
Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning
away every one of you from his
iniquities.”
The blessing would come not merely by
the coming of the Christ,
but by the people hearing and
heeding His message and repenting of their sin.
It would come by the people turning away
from his iniquities. That is, the
blessing
would come by two things relating to the Christ. First by the people
repenting
of their sin and turning from their iniquities, and, secondly, by
accepting
Jesus as the Christ, the Savior who could save them from their sins.
VI
A warning to the men today
Let
me point out to you that Jesus has already come to earth. He lived
among
men and died on the cross of
can be saved. After His mission here on earth was completed
He returned to
heaven
to take His place at the right hand of God the Father on the throne of
God. Yet even though He is physically present in
heaven, He still has power and
authority
here on earth. He had the power to heal
that lame man so that he
would
be able to walk again.
He
also has the power to save those who turn to God in repentance of sin
and see the salvation of their
soul. When they turn to God in
repentance and
call upon Him for mercy and
salvation, He sees their need, and He saves their
soul. He cleanses from every sin. He sends the Holy Spirit into the inner
spirit
of that person to produce the new birth.
He saves the sinner and makes
him (or her) whole in the inner
spirit just as He made that lame man whole in
his physical body. Furthermore, after He saves an individual he
keeps that
person
saved. He makes certain that nothing
will ever happen to keep that
person
from going to heaven.
One
of these days He is going to return to this earth to gather those who
are saved, to resurrect, and to
change the bodies of Dead Christians and to
carry
those whom He has saved to eternal glory.
He said to His disciples before
He left this earth, “I go and prepare a
place for you, and if I go and prepare a
place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am,
ye may be also.”
But
He comes not only to make certain that His redeemed people will be
with Him in eternal glory, but
He comes again to see to it that those who never
repent
toward God and who never trust in Him for salvation will be punished. We
read in Revelation 21 that those
whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book
of Life will be cast into the
False Prophet will still be even after
1000 years.