Acts 3:14 But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you, 15 and killed the Prince of life; whom God raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. 16 And by faith in his name hath his name made this man strong, whom ye behold and know: yea, the faith which is through him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
17 And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. 18 But the things which God foreshowed by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;
20 and that he may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus: 21 whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old. 22 Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you from among your brethren, like unto me; to him shall ye hearken in all things whatsoever he shall speak unto you. 23 And it shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. 24 Yea and all the prophets from Samuel and them that followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days. 25 Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.

Peter has been presenting a series of paradoxes in his sermon.

Although Jesus was a servant, God exalted Him. He was their deliverer, yet the nation delivered him to Pilate. They rejected the Holy and Righteous One in favor of an unholy, unjust murderer. Now he comes to the greatest paradox of all. They put to death the Prince of life, while asking for the release of one who took life.

Peter forcefully brings home the point that the Jews were open enemies of the God they professed to love, the very One they had come to the temple to worship.

He first convicted them of rejecting and executing their Messiah. Then, he proclaimed the necessity of repentance. Then, Peter offers them hope.

Peter offers them the possibility of forgiveness because they had acted in ignorance (Acts 13:27). He may be alluding to the Old Testament distinction between willful sins and sins done in ignorance (Num. 15:22–31). Jesus prayed for those who crucified Him, saying “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Paul wrote that if the rulers had understood who Jesus was, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). Their
ignorance was certainly inexcusable, since the evidence that Jesus was the Messiah was clear from the Old Testament,

We Killed the Messiah (Jesus)

Romans 3: 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law said, it said to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

Psalms 143:1 The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that does good. 2 The LORD looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. 3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that does good, no, not one.

But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He has thus fulfilled. (3:18)

Peter reassures his hearers that their rejection and execution of the Messiah had not thwarted God’s plan. Even the nation’s rejection of Him had been predicted (Isa. 53:3). God used their evil intentions to fulfill His own purposes (Acts 2:23; Gen. 50:20).

Ephesians 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

We Must Repent

Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, 3:19

Throughout redemptive history, God’s spokesmen, prophets, etc have called sinners to repentance.

God told Jeremiah to say to rebellious Israel, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not repent? Why then has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in continual apostasy? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return’ (Jer. 8:4–5). He commanded Ezekiel, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations” ’ (Ezek. 14:6).

The message did not change in the New Testament. Matthew 3:1–2 relates that “John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

Peter continues in that tradition and calls his hearers to repentance. They needed to repent, for they had rejected their Messiah and were in rebellion against God.

Repentance is the Key

In the parable of the two sons, the Lord Jesus Christ gave an illustration of true repentance:

But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, “Son, go work today in the vineyard.” And he answered and said, “I will, sir”; and he did not go. And he came to the second and said the same thing. But he answered and said, “I will not”; yet he afterward regretted it and went. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said, “The latter.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax-gatherers and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matt. 21:28–31)

The second son not only changed his mind but also followed that decision with a change in his behavior.

The knowledge of God’s revealed truth should cause men to repent. In Matthew 11:21–24, Jesus sharply rebuked the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum for refusing to repent:

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida

God’s Word is sufficient to bring people to repentance: “But [the rich man in Hades] said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.’

Sorrow or regret for sin, however, must not be confused with genuine repentance. Judas “felt remorse” over his betrayal of Jesus, yet never repented.

A big motivation to repentance is fear of final judgment. (Acts 17:30–31). The sobering reality of coming judgment should cause any rational person to repent and turn to God for forgiveness. There is no other way of escape.

In the first part of his sermon Peter gave his hearers abundant evidence that Israel had reached the wrong conclusion about Jesus Christ. Then he called on them to repent and reverse their verdict concerning Jesus Christ and place their faith in Him. To help persuade them, he gives them promised results if they repent: God will forgive their sin, the kingdom will come, Messiah will return, judgment will be avoided, and blessing will be realized.

God Will Forgive Us

That your sins may be wiped away, (3:19b)

David’s cry in Psalm 51:9, “Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”

Those who place their faith in Christ are united with Him in His death and resurrection (Rom. 6:4–5).

H. A. Ironside was occasionally interrupted during his sermons with the objection that there were hundreds of religions,” and that no one could determine which was the right way. Ironside would answer by indicating that he knew of only two religions. “One,” he would say, “covers all who expect salvation by doing; the other, all who have been saved by something done. The whole question is very simple. Can you save yourself, or must you be saved by another?”

Forgiveness produces joy and relief from guilt. Horatio Spafford expressed that reality beautifully in his classic hymn “It Is Well with My Soul.” In it he penned the following familiar words:

My sin, O, the bliss of this glorious thought, My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

God Will Still Bless

in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; (3:19c)

Repentance would not only bring the individual blessing of forgiveness of sin, but ultimately collective blessing also. The phrase times of refreshing refers to the millennial kingdom.

The kingdom will be a time of much needed refreshing for Israel. Ezekiel said it would be a time of “showers of blessing” (34:26).

The kingdom will be a golden age of blessing for Israel (and believing Gentiles), surpassing even the time of David and Solomon’s reigns. Isaiah 11:6–10 describes the peaceful rest of the kingdom in these familiar words:

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.

Peter thus placed the responsibility for the delay in the coming of the kingdom squarely on their shoulders. It was their lack of repentance that, humanly speaking, postponed the kingdom. God, through Peter, gave them the opportunity to repent of that sin. Sadly, though a few individuals responded, the nation as a whole continued to spurn God’s gracious offer.

There was nothing left for them except the fulfillment of the Lord’s sorrowful prophecy of Luke 19:41–44:

And when He approached, He saw the city [Jerusalem] and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes

The first devastating divine judgment for Israel’s rejection fell upon them in A.D. 70 when the Romans sacked Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and killed more than one million Jews.
Peter’s hearers paid a fearful price in time and eternity for their rejection of God’s repeated calls for repentance.

The Messiah Will Return

Peter told the crowd that God would send Jesus, the Christ appointed for them. Jesus expressed that truth in Matthew 23:39 when He said to the unbelieving city of Jerusalem, “From now on you shall not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ” He will not return until after repentant Israel acknowledges Him as their Messiah (Rom. 11:26; Zech. 12:10–14:9).

Some have wondered why, if Jesus were the Messiah, He did not remain and set up His kingdom. In reply, Peter reiterates the truth that in God’s sovereign timetable the millennial kingdom follows the nation’s repentance.

The truths Peter proclaimed were not new; God had spoken of them by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. The Old Testament prophets spoke repeatedly of Messiah’s earthly kingdom. Joel 2:25

Peter’s audience was carrying on a sad tradition of their ancestors, refusing to heed their prophets. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus lamented, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”

Jesus fulfilled numerous Old Testament prophecies, leaving the nation without excuse. To the unbelieving Jews Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me” (John 5:39).

BLESSING WILL BE REALIZED

It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, “And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. (3:25–26)

Because of God’s grace, mercy, and love for Israel, He did not permanently reject them even when they rejected His Son (Rom. 11:2).

All the rich blessings of salvation and all the covenant promises were available. Peter’s hearers could only obtain them, however, by turning from their wicked ways. Repentance was the key that unlocked everything. Peter had clearly shown that the claims of Jesus were consistent with Old Testament prophecy, so that it was a compelling case for his hearers to respond in repentance and belief.

Tragically, most of Peter’s audience refused to repent. Like their fathers before them, they hardened their hearts and failed to enter God’s rest (Heb. 3:8; 4:3). As a result, within the lifetime of many in the audience the nation would be destroyed. And those who refused to turn from their sins would find themselves “cast out into the outer darkness” (Matt. 8:12), where they will “pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:9).

Such a fate awaits all those in every age and place who refuse to repent and receive God’s gracious offer of salvation in Jesus Christ.