Bible Studies For Life

Bible Studies For Life

Mission With A Message                Seize the Day: Embracing Missions with Purpose Session 2  26 APR 26

ACTS 3:11-16 Dr. Herschel H. Hobbs in his Studying Life and Work Lessons, Apr-Jun 1993, page 39 “By this time, Peter and John apparently were standing in Solo­mon's porch (see John 10:23) the east side of the temple area. Solomon's porch was named from the fact that it was built on the foundation of a portion of Solomon's temple. With Peter and John was the healed man who "held" them. "Held" is a participle of hrato that has in it the idea of force and strength. He held them with all his strength, probably out of grat­itude and also out of fear. Perhaps he felt that if he was out of their presence he would become lame once more. In any case the people came to the apostles "greatly wondering." Verse 10 says they were "filled with wonder" (thambous). Verse 11 uses ekthamboi. Note the prefix ek, out of. Their wonder continued tio increase to the point of overflowing. This crowd pre­sented another challenge. Once again, Peter responded with a ser­mon, resulting in a multitude being saved.” Dr. Hobbs, page 39 “Note the repeated use of "his name," which denotes Jesus' per­son as well as His authority. The repetition is for emphasis. Through this man's faith in Jesus, he was made completely whole: The man was well known to them. "See" renders the Greek verb whence comes our word theater. It means to have a sustained look. Over the years they had seen the man in his customary begging place, and they knew full well that he was lame. But now they saw him well and strong. The people could not deny the evidence. If Jesus could heal this chronically lame man through his faith in Him, He could also heal their sin-sick souls.” Peter directly declared (Acts 3:14-15 RSV) "But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, {15} and killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses." The responsibility for Jesus’ death is not upon the Romans but upon the Jews. But today it is not politically correct to say this. Even most Christians allow the Bible to be changed so the Jews of Jesus’ day bear no responsibility for his death. What a poor witness that is, to change and revise the truth for the prevailing mode of people. Peter bolding stated the truth. And he built upon this statement. Dr. Hobbs, page 41 “Here then we see a twofold purpose in this miracle-to relieve human suffering and to demonstrate to these people Jesus' power to save their souls. Everything we do in His service and by His power should have the ultimate purpose of leading people to trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. Peter and John were ready to meet this challenge of serving the Lord. Are you?” Here "name" appears twice: once as the subject of the sentence, and again as the object of the preposition "in." Early in their history the Hebrews ceased pronouncing their God's name lest they take it in vain. Instead, they would simply say "the Name" which meant to them the God of the Hebrews. To the early Christians, Jesus' name was considered equivalent to the name of Yahweh. Thus “by faith in his name” refers to faith in Jesus. Whose’ faith does it address? Again everyone thinks it is the man’s faith. But it is Peter’s faith in Jesus’ name. It is Peter exercising his faith in Jesus that the Holy Spirit honored by healing the man. Note A. T. Robinson, Word pictures about Acts 3:16: “His name (to onoma autou). Repeats the word name to make the point clear. Cf. verse Ac 3:6 where Peter uses "the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth" when he healed the man.”

Peter painted a strong new fact to these Jews. Jesus WAS INDEED RAISED FROM THE DEAD by the Father and it is Jesus who gave the power of healing. We can thus say that Jesus authorized, i.e. directed the Holy Spirit to heal the man, even when he was unsaved. Peter needed to drive home the fact that Jesus WAS INDEED RAISED FROM THE DEAD by the Father because of (Rom 10:9 RSV) "because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Salvation is NOT A GIFT! It is a clear matter of (Acts 20:21 RSV) "testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Faith in Jesus is a total life commitment faith. (Mat 7:21 RSV) ""Not every one who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." I once again saw this past week the classic example of someone taking a dollar bill as how a person gets saved. The preacher said “All you have to do is take the gift from God.” WRONG! Salvation is not a gift. It is a way. It is “Costly Grace” and not cheap grace. Without repentance and faith commitment, there is no salvation. Peter had to make this point absolutely clear! The demands a life commitment, not words or taking.

ACTS 3:17 Peter stated he knew his readers acted in “ignorance”. Here the word best means “a lack of knowledge.” But this does not take the blame away from them for rejecting Jesus. They lacked the knowledge because of bad scripture study. In other words, they did not properly study scriptural doctrine. It is as Abraham said in (Luke 16:29 RSV) "But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.'"

                This is critically TRUE: They had (Deu 6:4-6 RSV) ""Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart;" And they had the call to commitment in Deut 10:12-11:32 starting with (Deu 10:12-13, 16 RSV) ""And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I command you this day for your good? Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn."

                This is a commitment like until (ACTS 20:21 RSV) "testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."

ACTS 3:18 Thus they should have been the first to realize “what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.” They should have known that Jesus was the prophet of (Deu 18:18 RSV) "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him."

ACTS 3:19-20 Peter used the wonder of the people to witness to the Plan of Salvation, both to the people and to the man. He used strong statements of truth, no matter the political impact. He opened with the fact that repentance was essential. A person can repent only of what is shown and acknowledged as personal sin. A. T. Robinson noted: “Repent therefore (metanoêsate oun). Peter repeats to this new crowd the command made in Ac 2:38 which see. God's purpose and patience call for instant change of attitude on their part. Their guilt does not shut them out if they will turn. And turn again (kai epistrepsate). Definitely turn to God in conduct as well as in mind. That your sins may be blotted out (pros to exaliphthênai humôn tas hamartias). Articular infinitive (first aorist passive of exaleiphô, to wipe out, rub off, erase, smear out, old verb, but in the N.T. only here and Col 2:14) with the accusative of general reference and with pros and the accusative to express purpose. That so (hopôs an). Final particle with “an” and the aorist active subjunctive elthôsin (come) and not "when" as the Authorized Version has it. Some editors put this clause in verse Acts 3:20 (Westcott and Hort, for instance). Seasons of refreshing (kairoi anapsuxeôs). The word anapsuxis (from anapsuchô, to cool again or refresh, 2Ti 1:16) is a late word (LXX) and occurs here alone in the N.T. Surely repentance will bring "seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."”

So Peter again emphasized that Jesus was alive by declaring the Second Coming as a future fact. It is only in the Divine and Living Lord Messiah that these people (or anyone) can be saved. The challenge to witness has two essential parts: (1) “As you go” witness. (2) Witness to “Make disciples”.

This is not available to people who only want to get out of Hell. Matt 28:19. Matt 7:21.

ACTS 3:21-23 (Acts 3:22-23 RSV) "Moses said, 'The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. {23} And it shall be that every soul that does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.'"

Jesus was not the kind of Messiah the Jewish people wanted. He is still not today. They wanted two basic things of their messiah: (1) To be made the rulers of the earth (Including the Apostles: See Acts 1:6) and (2) to be taken care of by God. In John 6:5, Jesus was on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and felt the need to miraculously feed about 5000 people. They had too much to eat that they were well filled and left a lot of leftovers. Their statement seems significant: (John 6:14 RSV) "When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!" They believed Jesus to be their kind of Messiah. The phrase “the prophet” meant the Messiah to the Jews. (John 1:45 RSV) "Philip found Nathanael, and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

ACTS 3:24-25 (Act 3:24 RSV) “And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. {25} You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’”

This is so obvious when one reads the whole Bible. The Jews of today and Most so-called Christians, do not.

The promises made to Abram (and when he began being Abraham) were made active by Jesus! (Gal 3:16-18 RSV) "Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many; but, referring to one, "And to your offspring," which is Christ, This is what I mean: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise." That PROMISE WAS JESUS! Abraham to Jesus!!!

(Gal 3:28-29 RSV) "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise."

                It is vital that this is a statement leading to Jesus as Lord Messiah!

ACTS 3:26 (Act 3:26 RSV) “When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” This servant is Jesus who was raised from the dead to be the Messiah to Jew AND Gentile!

                Jesus was sent to the Jews first and then the Gentiles. Jesus was the Messiah to the Jews first. (Rom 1:16 RSV) "For I am not ashamed of the gospel: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." Why? This was to give the Jews one final chance to be God’s witness organization to the lost. But they rejected the opportunity by rejecting Jesus. So God replaced Israel with the Church.

This is not a Reformed / Calvinist verse. Jesus has NEVER forcibly turned ANYONE “from your wicked ways.”  Most modern translations WRONGLY use “by” in saying “by turning.” This is whole-Bible WRONG!

Jesus has never turned anyone into a Christian by force. Paul is quite clear when he said (Eph 2:8 RSV) "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--" Calvinism and Reformism just say by grace, thus having God do all the action.

Note: Tyndale(i) 26 Fyrst vnto you hath God yised vp his sonne Iesus and him he hath sent to blysse you that every one of you shuld turne from youre wickednes. Haweis(i) 26 Unto you in the first instance, hath God, after raising up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, to the end that every one of you should turn away from your iniquities. (Note old spellings)

                It should read (Act 3:26 RSV) “When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you who have turned from your wicked ways.”

                Opportunities are stopped if real Christians (1) do not go about (As you go) and (2) do not witness to “make disciples” which is Acts 20:21! 

APPLY THE WHOLE BIBLE BEFORE YOU STATE A DOCTRINE!

Best Study Guide: How to Study the Bible Principles with Bible, A Study Sources by Orin T. Binkley.

https://sites.google.com/view/dma1-ganotemd/home