Acts 3:12 - Meaning and Application

Here is the sermon Peter preached after he healed the lame man. When Peter saw what had happened, he used the moment to preach Christ to the crowd. Since they had gathered in the temple, especially at Solomon’s Porch, he gave them a better wisdom than Solomon ever did, because a greater than Solomon was there in the message he preached.

When he saw how the miracle had stirred their wonder, he sowed the gospel seed in soil that had already been opened up. When he saw that they were ready to honor him and John, he moved at once to turn their attention away from themselves and toward Christ alone. He answered them as Paul and Barnabas later did at Lystra (Acts 14:14, 15).

In his sermon, Peter first humbly denied that the honor of the miracle belonged to them. They were only servants of Christ, tools in his hand. The truths they preached were not their own ideas, and the signs were not their own power. He spoke to them as men of Israel, people to whom the law, the promises, the gospel, and their fulfillment all belonged. He then asked them two things.

First, why were they so amazed by the miracle itself? “Why do you wonder at this?” he asked. The miracle was indeed amazing, and they had good reason to be surprised. But Christ had done many such works before, and they had not paid proper attention then. Not long before, Christ had raised Lazarus from the dead, and even more, he had risen from the dead himself. Why, then, should this seem so strange? People are often dull and slow. They call something surprising now, when they would have seen it as ordinary if only they had not been careless.

Second, why did they give so much praise to Peter and John, as if the miracle came from them? It was true that they had made the man walk, and that showed the apostles were sent by God. They were sent to bless the world and to be a help to human suffering. They were sent to heal souls that are spiritually lame and helpless, to set broken lives right, and to make people rejoice. Yet they did not do it by their own strength, skill, or personal holiness. The power came wholly from Christ.

It was not by any merit of their own that they received this power, either. Christ chose weak and foolish things to use for his work. Peter himself was a sinful man. The holiness they had was worked in them by God. They could not claim credit for it. The people were wrong to fix their eyes on the instruments instead of on God, who alone deserves the praise. The servants of God should be respected, but never treated like idols. We must not give to the tool what belongs to the one who uses it.

Peter and John were right to refuse the honor for themselves and send it to Christ. Those who are useful in God’s work must be deeply humble. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory.” Every crown must be laid at Christ’s feet. “Not I, but the grace of God with me.”

Then Peter preached Christ to them, because that was his true work. He wanted to lead them into obedience to Christ. He preached Jesus as the promised Messiah, the one God had promised to the fathers (Acts 3:13). Jesus is the Son of God. Though they had recently condemned Christ as a blasphemer for saying this, Peter openly declared it. He is God’s Son, and he is Jesus, which means Savior.

God has glorified him by raising him up to be king, priest, and prophet of his church. God glorified him in his life and death, as well as in his resurrection and ascension. Peter also calls God “the God of our fathers,” speaking with honor of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those names were precious to the people of Israel, and rightly so. God sent Christ according to the promises made to those patriarchs, that in their seed all the families of the earth would be blessed, and according to the covenant that God would be their God and the God of their children. By speaking this way, the apostles showed they had no evil purpose toward the Jewish nation. They cared for it and wished it well. The gospel they preached came from the mind and will of the God of Abraham (Acts 26:7, 22; Luke 1:72, 73).

Peter then plainly charged them with murdering Jesus, as he had done before. “You handed him over to your chief priests and elders,” he said, meaning the leaders of the nation. The common people had been stirred up by them to cry out against Jesus as if he were a public danger. “You denied him,” Peter said. “You refused to have him as your king. You would not accept him as the Messiah because he did not come with outward display and power. You denied him before Pilate and rejected all the hopes of your own church in the presence of the Roman governor.” Pilate had wanted to release Jesus, but the crowd opposed him and forced the issue. In that sense, they were worse than Pilate, because he would have let Jesus go if they had not pushed their own will.

They denied the Holy and Righteous One, who had proved himself to be exactly that. The holiness and righteousness of the Lord Jesus are more than simple innocence, and that made their sin even worse. They asked for a murderer to be released and for Christ to be crucified. Barabbas deserved nothing better from them than Jesus? That was a great insult to the Lord Jesus.

“You killed the Prince of life,” Peter said. This is a striking contrast. They spared a murderer, one who destroys life, and destroyed the Savior, the source of life. They killed the one who had come to be their Prince of life. In doing so, they not only turned away from their own mercy, they rebelled against it. It was a wicked and foolish thing to take away the life of the one who would have been their life. It was also foolish to think they could defeat the Prince of life, since he has life in himself and would soon take up again the life he had laid down.

Peter then confirmed again that Jesus had risen from the dead, as he had already done in chapter 11:32.

You thought the Prince of life could be deprived of his life, as any earthly prince can lose his power and honor. But you found out you were wrong, because God raised him from the dead. So when you put him to death, you fought against God, and you were defeated. God raised him, and in that way he confirmed Christ’s claims, established his teaching, removed the shame of his sufferings, and we are all witnesses of his resurrection.

Peter also says that the healing of this lame man came through the power of Christ (Acts 3:16). “His name,” that is, through faith in his name and in the revelation Christ has made of himself, “has made this man strong.” He repeats the point: “The faith that comes through him has given him this perfect health.”

Peter first points them to the truth of the miracle itself. The man healed is one you see and know, and have known for a long time. He had never known Peter and John before, so there is no reason to think they arranged this together. You know he had been crippled from birth. The miracle was done openly, in front of everyone, not in a hidden place but at the temple gate. You saw how it was done, so there could be no trick in it. You were free to examine it right away, and you still can. The cure is complete. It is a full healing, and you see the man walking and leaping, with no sign of weakness or pain left.

Peter then explains the power by which it was done. First, it was done in the name of Christ, not by using his name like a magic word, but by acting as teachers and messengers of his name. They had received authority and instructions from him, and he had given them power. His name stands above every other name, and his authority and command did the work. It is like a royal order carried out in the king’s name, even when a lower official delivers it.

Second, Christ’s power comes through faith in his name, a trust in him, a dependence on him, a believing approach to him, and an expectation of help from him. This faith is “through him,” that is, it comes from him, because it is his work and gift, not something we produce by ourselves. It is given by Christ, and it is given so that he receives the glory. He is both the founder and completer of our faith. Some think faith is mentioned twice here because of the apostles’ faith in doing the miracle and the cripple’s faith in receiving it, but it seems to refer mainly, if not only, to the apostles’ faith.

By telling the miracle honestly and clearly, Peter confirms the great gospel truth they must preach to the world, namely that Jesus Christ is the source of all power and grace, and the great healer and Savior. He also points to the great gospel duty of faith in Christ as the only way to receive benefit from him. He also explains the great mystery of salvation through Christ. It is Christ’s name that justifies us, that is, declares us right with God, and especially we are justified by that name through faith, by personally trusting in it and applying it to ourselves. In this way Peter preaches Jesus to them, and Jesus crucified, like a faithful friend of the bridegroom, giving all his support to Christ’s honor and service.

Peter then encourages them to hope for mercy, even though they had been guilty of putting Christ to death. He does all he can to convict them, but he is careful not to push them into despair. Their guilt was very serious, but he softens it by saying they acted in ignorance. He may have seen, from their faces, that they were deeply troubled when he told them they had killed the Prince of life. They may have been ready either to collapse or to turn away, so he thought it best to ease the force of the charge by calling them brothers. And he could rightly do that, because he had once been their brother in this same sin. He had denied the Holy and Righteous One and sworn he did not know him. He had done it in surprise. “And as for you,” he says, “I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers” (Acts 3:17).

This is Peter’s charity speaking, and it teaches us to think as well as we can of those we want to help become better. Peter had already opened the wound fully, and now he begins to heal it. To do that, he must first make his hearers think well of the one treating them. And could anything be more winning than this? He is also following his Master’s example, since Jesus prayed for his crucifiers and pleaded for them that they did not know what they were doing. It is also said of the rulers that if they had understood, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2:8). Some rulers and some people may have resisted the light and the convictions of their own consciences, and acted out of hatred. But the great majority followed the crowd and acted in ignorance. In the same way, Paul persecuted the church in ignorance and unbelief (1 Timothy 1:13).

Peter also softens the effect of their crime, the death of the Prince of life. That sounds terrible, but it happened according to the Scriptures (Acts 3:18). The Scriptures did not force them to sin, but they did require Christ’s sufferings. As Christ himself said, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer.” So when Peter says they acted in ignorance, he may also mean this: “You fulfilled the Scripture and did not know it. God, through your hands, fulfilled what he had shown by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer.” This was God’s plan in handing him over to them, but they had their own selfish aims and knew nothing of God’s purpose. They did not intend to fulfill Scripture, and their hearts did not think in those terms. Yet God was fulfilling Scripture while they were following their own passions.

We should notice that this was not only fixed in God’s secret counsel, but also announced to the world long before, by the words and writings of the prophets, that Christ should suffer to complete his work. It was God himself who revealed this through them. He will see that his words come true. What he showed, he fulfilled. He fulfilled it exactly as he had shown it, with no change at all.

This does not lessen their sin in hating and persecuting Christ to death. Their sin was still extremely wicked. But it did encourage them to repent and hope for mercy if they did repent. That is true in general, because God was carrying out his gracious purposes through their act, just as Joseph encouraged his brothers when they thought their wrong against him could never be forgiven: “Fear not, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:15, Genesis 50:20). It is also true in a special way because Christ’s death and suffering were for the forgiveness of sins, and they are the basis for the mercy Peter now urges them to hope for.

He urges them all to become Christians and assures them that this would be for their greatest good. It would be the making of them forever. This is the practical use of his sermon.

First, he tells them what they must believe. They must believe that Jesus Christ is the promised Seed, the one seed in whom God told Abraham that all the peoples of the earth would be blessed (Acts 3:25; Genesis 12:3). That promise was given long before it was fulfilled, but now it had finally come true in Jesus, who came from Abraham’s line in his human nature. In him, all the families of the earth are blessed, not Israel alone. All receive some benefit through him, and some receive all his benefits.

They must also believe that Jesus Christ is a prophet, that prophet like Moses, whom God promised to raise up from among their brothers (Acts 3:22; Deuteronomy 18:18). Christ is a prophet because God speaks to us through him. All divine revelation centers in him, and he hands it down to us. He is like Moses, a chosen servant of heaven, more deeply acquainted with God’s counsel than any other prophet. He delivered his people from bondage and led them through the wilderness, like Moses. He is a prince and lawgiver, like Moses, and the builder of the true tabernacle, just as Moses built the symbol of it.

Moses was faithful as a servant, while Christ is faithful as a Son. Moses was opposed by Israel and challenged by Pharaoh, yet God supported him and confirmed his calling. Moses was a model of gentleness and patience, and so is Christ. Moses died by the word of the Lord, and so did Christ. There was no prophet like Moses (Numbers 12:6-7; Deuteronomy 34:10), yet a greater than Moses is here whenever Christ is present. He is a prophet raised up by God, for he did not take this honor on himself, but was called by God to it.

He was raised up for Israel first. He carried out this office among them in his own person. They had the first offer of divine grace, and so he was raised up from among them, from their own people according to the flesh. This was a great honor to them, but also a duty and an encouragement to receive him. If he comes to his own, surely they should receive him. The Old Testament church had many prophets, even schools of prophets, for many generations, with a steady line of prophets, beginning with Samuel and those who came after him (Acts 3:24). From Samuel, the prophetic age began. But after the servants had been mistreated, God finally sent his Son, who had been in his own bosom.

They must also believe that times of refreshing will come from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19), and that these will be the times of the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). There is a future life after this one. These times will come from the presence of the Lord, from his glorious appearing at the end of time. The Lord’s absence gives sinners their false security and believers their doubts, but his coming is drawing near, and it will end both forever. The Judge stands at the door.

The presence of the Lord will bring the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). This means the new heavens and the new earth, which will come after the present order is dissolved (Revelation 21:1). It means the renewal of the whole creation, which now groans under the burden caused by human sin. Some take this to mean a state before the end of time, but it is better understood as the final end of all things that God has spoken of through all his holy prophets since the world began. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of this (Jude 1:14), and the temporal judgments foretold by the other prophets were pictures of what the apostle calls the eternal judgment. The New Testament reveals this more clearly than before, and all who receive the gospel now look for it.

Along with this will come times of refreshing (Acts 3:19), times of comfort for the Lord’s people, like cool shade after a hard day’s labor. All Christians look for a rest that still remains for God’s people after the struggles of this life. This hope supports them in suffering and carries them through service. The refreshment that then comes from the presence of the Lord will continue forever in his presence.

Second, he tells them what they must do. They must repent, that is, think again about what they have done wrong, come to a right mind, and submit to the conviction that they are guilty. They must begin again. Peter himself had denied Christ and then repented, and he wanted them to do the same.

They must also be converted, that is, turn around and go the opposite way from where they had been going. They must return to the Lord their God, from whom they had turned away. It is not enough to feel sorry for sin; we must turn from it and not go back to it. They must do more than switch from Judaism to Christianity in outward profession. They must also turn from a worldly, fleshly mind to holy, heavenly, and divine principles and desires.

They must hear Christ, the great prophet: “You must listen to everything he tells you.” They must pay attention to his teaching, accept his doctrine, and submit to his rule. They must hear him with faith, as prophets should be heard when they come with God’s commission. They must hear him in all things and agree to his words with ready obedience. His laws must govern all their actions, and his counsel must guide all their choices. Whenever he speaks, they must be ready to listen. Whatever he says, even if it displeases flesh and blood, they must welcome it. “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”

There is a strong reason for this. It is dangerous to ignore Christ’s call and resist his rule (Acts 3:23). “Every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be destroyed from among the people.” The destruction of the city and nation by war and famine was threatened for despising the prophets of the Old Testament, but a far greater destruction is threatened for despising Christ, this great prophet. Those who will not take advice from the Savior can expect only to fall into the hands of the destroyer.

Third, he tells them what they might expect. They would receive pardon for their sins. This is always one of the great blessings promised to all who accept the gospel (Acts 3:19): “Repent, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away.”

This means, first, that forgiving sin is like wiping out writing. A cloud is blotted out by the sun’s rays, and a debt is crossed out when it is canceled (Isaiah 44:22). When God forgives, he no longer keeps that sin against the sinner. It is forgotten, like something erased, and all the hard things written against the sinner are wiped away, as if with a sponge (Job 13:26).

Second, we should not expect our sins to be forgiven unless we repent and turn to God. Christ died to buy forgiveness for sin, but we must repent and be converted if we want to receive that gift. If there is no repentance, there is no forgiveness. This is why the call to repent is so serious and urgent.

Third, the promise of pardon should strongly move us to repent. “Repent, that your sins may be blotted out” says that repentance grows out of trust in God’s mercy in Christ and hope in forgiveness. This was the first great message: repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near. The best repentance is the kind that leans on God’s mercy, not on fear alone.

Fourth, the sweetest result of forgiveness will be seen when the times of refreshing come. If our sins are forgiven now, we have good reason to rejoice now. But the full comfort will come when that pardon is openly confirmed, and our justification, our being declared right with God, is made public before angels and people, just as Romans 8:30 says. We are already God’s children now (1 John 3:2), and our sins are already blotted out, but we do not yet see all the blessed results until those refreshing times arrive.

During this present life, with its hard work, conflict, doubts, fears, troubles, and dangers, we cannot enjoy the full peace that we will know then. That future season will wipe away every tear. So forgiveness is a present comfort, but its deepest joy still lies ahead.

They should also find comfort in Christ’s coming again (Acts 3:20, Acts 3:21). God will send Jesus Christ, the same Jesus who had already been preached to them. They must not look for a new gospel or a different Savior. They must look for the same Christ, whose work will continue until everything is fully completed.

We should not expect Christ’s bodily presence with us in this world. The heavens received him when he left the disciples, and they must keep him until the end of time. His glorified body belongs to that place of blessedness, and it will remain there until all is fulfilled. For that reason, those who dream of his bodily presence in the Lord’s Supper dishonor him and mislead themselves. This life is a time of testing, and it fits that the glorified Redeemer should be out of sight, since we must walk by faith, not by sight.

Yet he will still be sent to those who repent and turn to God (Acts 3:20). In one sense, Christ is sent to them in the gospel, which is his dwelling place among them and his chariot of victory. In another sense, he is sent to judge Jerusalem and the unbelieving Jewish nation, delivering his ministers and people from their enemies and giving them peace in preaching the gospel. That will be a time of refreshment for them. And when he is sent to judge the world at the end, that will also be a blessing to believers, because then they will lift up their heads in joy, knowing their redemption is near.

All of God’s plans, from eternity and from the beginning of time, pointed toward the events of the last day. Then the mystery of God will be finished, as he promised through his prophets (Revelation 10:7). Everything established in the church had that final restoration in view.

Peter then tells them why they may still hope for these blessings if they turn to Christ. Even though they denied Jesus and put him to death, they may still find favor through him because they are Israelites. As Israelites, they had a special share in the grace of the Old Testament. They were God’s chosen nation, and the blessings given to them pointed ahead to the Messiah and his kingdom.

He says, “You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant.” That gives them a double privilege. They are the children, or disciples, of the prophets, like children in a school. The prophets came from among them, and prophets were sent to them. God made it a great honor to Israel that he raised up prophets from their sons (Amos 2:11). All the inspired writers of both Testaments came from Abraham’s family, and it was their privilege that God’s words were entrusted to them (Romans 3:2).

Their whole government was shaped by prophecy, meaning by divine revelation, and for many years their national life was guided by it. By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he kept them safe. Even later generations, after prophecy had stopped, could still be called children of the prophets, because they heard the prophets’ voices read in the synagogues every Sabbath day (Acts 13:27).

This should move them to embrace Christ. They may also hope to be accepted by him, because their own prophets had said that this grace would come to them when Jesus Christ was revealed (1 Peter 1:13). So they should not ignore it, and it should not be denied to them. Those who are blessed with prophets and Scripture are under a serious obligation not to receive God’s grace in vain.

We may apply this especially to ministers’ children. If they use their parentage rightly, as a reason to be faithful and eager in religion, they may also bring it before God with comfort. They may hope that the children of God’s servants will keep going in the same way.

They were also the children, that is, the heirs, of the covenant God made with their fathers, like children in a family. God’s covenant was made with Abraham and his descendants, and they were the very people with whom that covenant was made. Its blessings were meant for them. The promise of the Messiah was made to them, so if they do not throw away their own mercy by stubborn unbelief, they may still hope for its good result.

The promise here is the main part of the covenant: “In your seed all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Galatians 3:16). This points mainly to Christ, but it can also include the church, which is his body, and all believers, who are Abraham’s spiritual seed. All the families of the earth are blessed in having Christ’s church among them. Those who were Abraham’s descendants by birth had the strongest claim to this privilege. If all the families of the earth were to be blessed in Christ, then his own kinsmen by flesh had even more reason to hope for it.

As Israelites, they also had the first offer of the grace of the New Testament. Since they were the children of the prophets and the covenant, the Redeemer was first sent to them. That should encourage them to hope that if they repented and turned back, he would be sent further for their comfort (Acts 3:20). “He will send Jesus Christ, whom he appointed beforehand for you” (Acts 3:26).

To you first, you Jews, though not to you alone, God raised up his Son Jesus, appointed and authorized him as a Prince and Savior, and confirmed this by raising him from the dead. He sent him to bless you, to offer you his blessing, especially that great blessing of turning each of you away from your evil ways. So it concerns you to receive this blessing, turn from your sins, and hope that you will indeed receive it.

We are told first where Christ’s mission came from. God raised up his Son Jesus and sent him. He raised him up when he appointed him as a prophet, marked him out by a voice from heaven, and filled him with the Spirit without measure. Then he sent him, because this was why he raised him up, to serve as his messenger and make peace. He sent him to bear witness to the truth, to seek and save lost souls, and to go against his enemies and overcome them.

Some take “raised him up” to mean the resurrection, which was the first step toward his exaltation. In that case, it was like a renewed commission. And although, after raising him up, God seemed at once to take him from us, he really sent him again to us in his gospel and his Spirit.

We are also told to whom Christ was sent, to you first. You, who are the seed of Abraham, the children of the prophets and of the covenant, were the first to receive this offer of gospel grace. Christ’s personal ministry, like that of the prophets, was limited to the Jews. He was then sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and he told the disciples he first sent out not to go beyond them. After his resurrection, he was to be preached to all nations, but they were to begin at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47). And when they went to other nations, they first preached to the Jews they found there.

The Jews were the firstborn, and so had the privilege of the first offer. They were not shut out because they had put Christ to death. In fact, after he rose again, he was first sent to them, and they were meant to be the first to benefit from his death.

We are also told what Christ was sent to do. He was sent to bless you, and that was his main purpose. He was not sent first to condemn you, as you deserve, but to justify you, that is, to count you right with God if you accept the offered gift in the way it is given. But the one who sends him first to bless you will also deal with those who refuse and reject that blessing.