“REPENT, RECEIVE, REVIVE, REJOICE”
ACTS 3:19-26

I. Introduction
Have you ever asked someone if they feared God? If you’ve ever asked that question of an unbeliever, you’ve probably gotten an answer that sounded something like this: “No, I don’t fear God. God is love and I’m a good person. What do I have to fear?”

However, if you’ve ever asked that question of a Christian, one who has come to saving faith and knows the God of the Bible, it’s most likely you’ve gotten an answer that sounds some-thing like this: “Of course I fear God. Only a fool would not fear Him.”

That’s more than a good answer; it’s a wise answer. Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.” The Hebrew word translated “wisdom” (chokhmâh – koke-mawʹ) refers to all the positive knowledge, experience, insight, and judgment that God has bestowed on His people. It’s interesting that in Proverbs 1:7 Solomon says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.” That isn’t a quirk in the translation. Solomon actually used a different Hebrew word (daʹath – dahʹ-ath) in order to convey a different point.

While the Hebrew word translated “wisdom” is always positive, the word translated “know-ledge” is not always positive. It refers to the things that we learn through our natural human senses. But the bottom line is this: Whether we learn of God through the wisdom that He supernaturally bestows on us, or we learn of Him through the day-to-day experiences of life in His creation, we can really know nothing of eternal value if we do not fear the God of the Bible. And so both the psalmist and King Solomon can tell us that knowledge and wisdom begin with “…the fear of the LORD.”

So what is such fear? There are those who like to say that it is basically respect. While respect is definitely a part of the whole idea of fearing God, it is only a part of it. The fear of God, at least for the Bible-believing Christian, carries with it a clear and abiding understand-ing of God’s hatred for sin and the sure knowledge that He will judge it – even in the life of His children. God’s judgment of sin in the life of the believer certainly can be “fearful.” But in our heart of hearts we know that the discipline of a loving father is for our ultimate good. Listen to the writer of Hebrews.
Hebrews 12:5b-6, 11
5b “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
6 for those whom the LORD loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives. (vv. 7-10 speak of God’s discipline as that of a loving father)
11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.
In Hebrews 13:5 God says, “I will never desert you, nor will I forsake you.” And Romans 8:39 tells us that nothing can ever “…separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So no Christian should ever be scared of God. But every Christian should always revere Him. It is in that reverence that we find the fear of God which is the begin-ning of all knowledge and wisdom. Or, stated a different way, all true knowledge and all true wisdom merely begin with the fear of the Lord.

Thus the natural man (the unbeliever) does not fear God because the unbeliever does not know God. And unless and until God reveals Himself to the unbeliever, he never will.
*1 Corinthians 2:14
14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.
*2 Corinthians 4:3-4
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4 in whose case the god of this world (Satan) has blinded the minds of the unbe-lieving, (so) that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

In Romans 3:18 the Apostle Paul tells us that, “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
So it is easy to see why an unbeliever might say, “God is love and I’m a good person. What do I have to fear?” And since much of today’s preaching ignores the whole idea of the fear of the Lord, many of the lost will remain lost. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

How does God break through a sinner’s spiritual blindness and open their eyes? He convicts them of their sin and calls them to repentance. That’s what today’s passage in Acts 3:19-26 is about. That bottom line is that people must come to repentance or they cannot be saved. When speaking of a construction accident that had killed a number of workers, Jesus said,
“I tell you…unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (Luke 13:5).”

God used the His prophets to warn Israel of their need for repentance. Ezekiel was told…
Ezekiel 14:6
6 “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 abomina-tions.”’”

In the NT John the Baptist’s ministry was to call men to repentance.
Matthew 3:1-2
1 Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,
2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Later, after John was imprisoned, Jesus’ ministry began with the same call for repentance.
Matthew 4:17
17 “From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

When Peter preached his first sermon on the Day of Pentecost, the message was the same.
Acts 2:38a
38a And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…”

And when Paul preached to the Gentiles in the Areopagus in Athens he said…
Acts 17:30b-31
30b “…God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent. (Why?)
31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man (Jesus Christ) whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

The point of all of this is that throughout the Scriptures people are called to repent, to change their minds about God and the Person of His Son. But repentance is much more than a mere intellectual exercise. It’s a change of mind that results in a change of direction, a change of behavior, and ultimately, a change of heart. Jesus told a parable to illustrate true repentance.
*Matthew 21:28-31 (speaking to the religious leaders of Israel)
28 “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.’
29 “And he answered and said, ‘I will, sir’; and he did not go.
30 “And he (the father) came to the second (son) and said the same thing. But he answered and said, ‘I will not’; yet he afterward regretted it and went.
31 “Which of the two (sons) 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.”

In Jesus’ parable the second son not only changed his mind, but followed it with a change of behavior. In other words, his actions proved his heart. That’s true repentance. But the reli-gious leaders to whom Jesus told this parable had no intention of changing their minds or their behavior. They did not repent.
*Matthew 21:32
32 “For John (the Baptist) came to you in the way of righteousness (preaching repentance) and you did not believe him; but the tax-gatherers and harlots did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” (They refused to repent.)

What causes someone to come to true repentance? Here are three things that God uses to break through hard hearts and open spiritual eyes.
The first thing God uses is His Word. Whether it is read or heard the Word of God breaks through hard hearts and opens blind eyes. Referring to the gospel he wrote John said…
John 20:31
31 …these (things) have been written (so) that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

The second thing God uses to bring about repentance is sorrow for sin. To be clear, sorrow alone is not repentance, but sorrow for sin can lead to true repentance. Judas had remorse for what he had done. He was sorry, but he did not repent. I once heard someone use the example of a driver being pulled over for speeding. He had remorse and told the officer he was sorry. The officer asked, “Are you sorry you broke the law, or are you sorry you got caught?” That’s the difference between sorrow and repentance.

The third thing that God sometimes uses to bring about repentance is what we talked about at the beginning – fear. The fear of judgment to come and an eternal hell is a legitimate rea-son for any rational unbeliever to come to repentance.
Luke 12:4-5
4 “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: Fear the One who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him!”

Listen, “…God has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man (Jesus Christ) whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31).”

That day is coming! And regardless of how far in the future it still may be, you can be abso-lutely sure of one thing: It is two thousand years closer than it was when Paul first said it!
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II. Review (Go to Acts 3)
Before we look at this morning’s text in Acts I want to set the stage. In Acts 3:1-11 Peter and John have gone to the temple for afternoon prayers. On their way into the building they encounter a lame beggar who asks them for alms. The two apostles have no money, but in v. 6 Peter says, “In the name of Jesus the Nazarene – walk!” Immediately the lame beggar is healed – fully and completely. The crowds who witness this miracle are amazed and they rush to gather around Peter, John, and the formerly lame beggar.

In Acts 3:12-18 Peter, seizing the opportunity to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, tells the crowd that he and John have done nothing. It is the power of Jesus of Nazareth that has healed the beggar. Peter reminds them that they had Jesus put to death, but God raised Him from the dead. And in v. 18 Peter tells them that they should not be surprised by any of this because the OT had prophesied all of it.
Everything that had happened was part of God’s plan; His prophecies have been fulfilled.
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III. Text
Those, says Peter, are the facts. Jesus is exactly who He said He is, and those hearing Peter need to change their minds about the One whom they crucified. They need to repent.
*Acts 3:19-26 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
19 “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
22 “Moses said, ‘The LORD God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed in everything He says to you.
23 ‘And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’
24 “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his succes-sors onward, also announced these days.
25 “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.’
26 “For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turn-ing every one of you from your wicked ways.”

In the first part of Peter’s sermon he made it clear that Israel was wrong about Jesus. Now he would tell them they needed to rethink it. That is to say, they would need to change their minds about Him. That’s repentance.

There’s a practical lesson here for all of us who try to tell someone about Jesus.
• We tell people they have to ask Jesus to forgive them, but the lost don’t always think they’ve done anything that needs to be forgiven. (Trump)
• We tell people they have to be sorry for their sin, but the lost are not always sorry for their sin. They enjoy it too much.
• We tell people they have to “believe in Jesus,” but many of the lost do believe that He existed; that He was an historical person who really did live and die. And as such, they already do “believe in Him.” (like believing in George Washington or Henry Ford)
• Yet we seldom tell people they need to repent because we’re afraid they’ll think we’re just a bunch of old-fashioned hellfire and damnation Bible thumpers. Right?

So what can we do? We can tell people the truth about who Jesus really is and what He has done. It’s only when they change their minds about Him (repent) that they’ll come to under-stand their need to be forgiven for their sin and put their faith in Him and Him alone.
Here, on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem, Peter has told the crowds who have marveled at the healing of the beggar that changing their minds about Jesus is what Israel has failed to do. And it is the one thing they must do.
*Acts 3:19
19 “Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;

Repentance is inextricably linked to the wiping away of sins. This is the magnificent truth that applies not only to national Israel and every Jew, but to every nation and every indivi-dual as well. Peter and the other apostles repeat this truth throughout the Book of Acts.
*Acts 5:30-31
30 “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hang-ing Him on a cross.
31 “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” (back to Acts 3:19)

“Wiped away” means that our sins are not just erased as you might erase a mistake on a sheet of paper. They are totally gone and completely forgotten!
Isaiah 43:25
25 “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.” (emphasis on “My own sake” – the glory of God)

Therefore, Paul could say, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).” And as John the Baptist, the apostles, and the Lord Jesus Him-self all taught, being “in Christ Jesus” begins with repentance. Only then can you receive Him and His gift of salvation.
John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,
13 who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And so we repent. We change our minds about Jesus and He proceeds to change us. That’s why we opened the service by singing… “Change my heart, O God, make it ever true. Change my heart, O God, may I be like You.”

It’s only after we’ve received Him that we realize that He had been waiting for us. That’s why we sang… “If you’ll take one step toward the Savior, my friend, you’ll find His arms open wide. Receive Him and all of your darkness will end; within your heart He’ll abide. Time after time He has waited before, and now He is waiting again to see if you’re willing to open the door. O how He wants to come in.”

So we repent and we receive. But these are the two things the nation of Israel refused to do.
Rather than repenting and receiving Christ, they had refused and rejected Him. Thus they would not receive the kingdom they longed for. However, when the Lord Jesus returns they will repent and receive Him. It is only then that He will establish His Messianic Kingdom on this earth – what the church usually calls the Millennial Kingdom, or “The Millennium.”

That is what Peter is telling them as he preaches on the steps of the temple in Jerusalem.
Look again at Acts 3:19. He says, “Repent…in order that times of refreshing may come…” That’s the Messianic Kingdom. Only then will every living Jew – all Israel – repent and receive Jesus. And only then will they revive and rejoice. Look once more at v. 19. The “…times of refreshing” will result “…from the presence of the Lord.”

When will that be? The Apostle Paul tells us precisely when that will be. It will be at the Second Coming. Only then will every living Jew recognize Jesus as their Messiah.
Romans 11:25-27
25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;
26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”
27 “And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”

What will this world be like during the Millennial Kingdom? Listen to John MacArthur from his commentary on Acts 3. “The kingdom will be marked by peace, joy, holiness, the revelation of God’s glory, comfort, justice, knowledge of the Lord, health, prosperity, and freedom from oppression.” The OT is filled with details of what it will be like, but here’s just one snapshot…
Isaiah 11:6-8
6 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.
7 And the cow and the bear will graze; their young will lie down together; and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 And the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

The prophet details many more of the joys of the Millennial Kingdom in Isaiah 35. The desert will bloom, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, and the lame will leap. And why not? Jesus will be there! Such are the times of refreshing in Acts 3:19.
*Acts 3:20-21
20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.
So the kingdom is described as both “…the times of refreshing” in v. 19 and “…the period of restoration of all things” in v. 21. And those two verses are connected by v. 20. The Christ is coming back. And in v. 21 Peter tells the Jews again that they should know all of this because God’s holy prophets predicted it. By the way, if you’re looking for proof of the OT’s inspiration, you’ll need to look no further than Acts 3:21.
*Acts 3:22-24 (Peter quotes from Deuteronomy.)
22 “Moses said, ‘The LORD God shall raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed in everything He says to you.
23 ‘And it shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’
24 “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his succes-sors onward, also announced these days.

In order to drive home the point that the prophets spoke of Messiah’s first coming, Peter uses the example of Moses, who not only prophesied the Messiah’s coming, but also warned Israel what would happen if they rejected Him.
Deuteronomy 18:15, 18-19 (v. 15 Moses speaking – vv. 18-19 God speaking)
15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.”
18 “I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
19 “And it shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.”

Require what of him? Acts 3:23 tells them. They shall be utterly destroyed. And in Acts 3:24, Peter reminds them that every prophet, from Samuel to John the Baptist, has taught the same things. In short, Peter is saying that they are without excuse.
*Acts 3:25-26
25 “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.’
26 “For you first, God raised up His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turn-ing every one of you from your wicked ways.”

If any people anywhere should have recognized Jesus for who He was, it should have been the Jews. Their failure to do so plagues the nation of Israel to this day. But that doesn’t change the fact that they were, and still are, God’s chosen nation and heirs of His promised covenants. Today’s unsaved Jews, lost sinners like all other unsaved people, are still the physical seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And God is not finished with them yet. In Romans 11:2 the Apostle Paul makes that point crystal clear where he says, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” Do you need proof? Look again at Acts 3:26.
And so Peter ends his sermon with hope. The fact remains that God sent His Servant Jesus to the nation of Israel. To be sure, God’s good news of the gospel is for everyone, but that gospel was always intended for the Jew first.
• In Luke 24:47 Jesus told His disciples, “Repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem.” (to the Jew first)
• In Acts 1:8 He told His disciples, “You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” (to the Jew first)
• In Romans 1:16, even Paul, addressing Gentiles, said, “I am not ashamed of the gos-pel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (the Gentile).”

Listen, Jesus is coming again! And one of the reasons He is coming again is to keep the pro-mises of His covenants with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to save His chosen people, the nation of Israel.
*Romans 11:26-29
26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.”
27 “And this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”
28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;
29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Israel will repent, Israel will receive, Israel will revive, and Israel will rejoice.
*Zechariah 13:8-9
8 “And it will come about in all the land,” declares the LORD, “That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; but the third will be left in it. (i.e., one in three Jews will survive the Great Tribulation.)
9 “And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them as silver is
refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”
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IV. Conclusion
Acts 3:19-26 is all about Israel and the Jews. Peter is not talking about Gentiles and the church. But as is so often the case in the Scriptures, there is a principle that applies to each and every one of us. You and I will never know rejoicing until we are revived. We will never be revived until we receive Christ. And that cannot happen until we repent. If you’ve never changed your mind about Jesus – who He is and what He has done – I urge you to do so today. He is coming soon…

~ Pray ~