Acts 3:17-23\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0\u201cNow, fellow Israelites,\u00a0I know that you acted in ignorance,\u00a0as did your leaders.\u00a018\u00a0But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold\u00a0through all the prophets,\u00a0saying that his Messiah would suffer.\u00a019\u00a0Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,\u00a0that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,\u00a020\u00a0and that he may send the Messiah,\u00a0who has been appointed for you\u2014even Jesus.21\u00a0Heaven must receive him\u00a0until the time comes for God to restore everything,\u00a0as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.\u00a022\u00a0For Moses said, \u2018The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you.23\u00a0Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from their people.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cNow, fellow Israelites,\u00a0I know that you acted in ignorance,\u00a0as did your leaders.\u00a018\u00a0But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold\u00a0through all the prophets,\u00a0saying that his Messiah would suffer.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 God gave us a model on what to say when sharing Him with the world.\u00a0 A question that most people will have is \u201cWhy do I need to be saved?\u00a0 What am I in need of being saved from?\u00a0 If I need to be saved, how do I get saved?\u201d\u00a0 Peter has not backed up from the fact those that surround him were complicit in the act of killing Jesus.\u00a0 Now, as he leads them toward the road of knowing Jesus as their Savior, he softens slightly to let them know that eternal life with God is possible for them.\u00a0 Many of the Jews had been misled by their priests.\u00a0 They were children being taught the error.\u00a0 The one who teaches about God has great privilege and huge responsibility to teach only the truth, as God has warned (James 3:1, 1 Timothy 1:6-7<\/b>)<\/p>\n
The murder of the fleshly body of Jesus was done by ignorant and, or, evil men.\u00a0 Yet, as previously discussed, what happened to Jesus was what God had foretold.\u00a0 The will of God was executed exactly as God had foretold by men who did not want to play the part of bringing the fulfillment of the prophecies to be in Jesus.\u00a0 They were united against Jesus and so would not have knowingly and willingly been a participant in fulfilling of the scriptures in Jesus.\u00a0Proverbs 16:9<\/b>\u00a0is especially apt to describe God\u2019s response to the plans of people who, like these, are not seeking God\u2019s will \u201cIn their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The divine will of God will be done.\u00a0\u00a0 So what God had foretold came to be.\u00a0 Jesus was born a baby, a Jewish baby, He came to be the Savior they didn\u2019t understand that they needed, He willingly suffered, died, and was resurrected, ascended to Heaven and now sits at the right hand of God.\u00a0\u00a0 Just as God had foretold. Praise God!\u00a0 His will be done!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
\u201cRepent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,\u00a0that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Peter has just recounted to the Jews their horrible sin of rejecting and killing the Messiah they said they were waiting for.\u00a0 He told them that they had sinned in the worst way.\u00a0 Then, because Jesus truly is the Messiah that has come from God, He is Messiah even to the ones who rejected and killed him.\u00a0 Since the grace of God extends to the sins of those who had Jesus killed, let us no more say that God has yanked away the promises He made to the Jews.\u00a0 The promises that God gave to the Jews still remain to them.\u00a0 They had hoped that the Savior will give them their promises and all the promises are still available to the Jews through the Messiah.\u00a0 All Jews may still receive salvation and all the promises of God through their Messiah Jesus.\u00a0 How wonderful and inspirational is the love and mercy of God!\u00a0 As we see the love and mercy God extends to the Jews, we become more confident that He will love and forgive us.\u00a0 Since Jesus offers to forgive the sins of those who murdered His Son, He also has fully offered to us His love and mercy, and that, Family, should bless us, just as God foretold (Romans 11:11-12<\/b>).<\/p>\n
The refreshing comes from being loved, forgiven and kept by God.\u00a0 The refreshing comes from the deepest meaning of the Sabbath.\u00a0 God is good.\u00a0 God is faithful, even when we are not.\u00a0 To all God has offered salvation through Jesus.\u00a0 We need only accept and cling to it.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n
\u201cand that he may send the Messiah,\u00a0who has been appointed for you\u2014even Jesus.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Peter has said that God will forgive these Jews if they will repent.\u00a0 Then after they have repented, the Messiah, who is Jesus, the one they killed, will come to them and give them eternal life.\u00a0 Oh Family, how wonderful is that?\u00a0 Wonderful for them and also wonderful for us.\u00a0 Family, after all, Jesus did not only die for the sins of the Jew, but also for our sins.\u00a0 God used the Jew to bring us the Messiah, but they did not need Him any more than us.\u00a0 They are, yet again, an example of God\u2019s love and mercy that came first to them and then to then us (Romans 11:25-32<\/b>).\u00a0 Though God loves Israel so dearly, He loves us just as much.\u00a0 When my first child was born I thought I could never love another child as much as I loved him.\u00a0\u00a0 I was afraid that I might not love another child as much.\u00a0 But there was no need for fear. \u00a0I love my second son as much as my first.\u00a0 I have my first and second sons and that is only by chronological order and is not differentiated by degree or amount.\u00a0 I love them the same.\u00a0 Yes, the blessings of God flowed first to the Jew and then to us, but because they are first does not mean more or better.\u00a0 God loves us as much as them and them as much as us.\u00a0 God is good all the time and He loves all the people all the time.\u00a0 Indeed God is great beyond our ability to understand, but not to know. Praise God!<\/p>\n
Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Acts 3:17-23\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201cNow, fellow Israelites,\u00a0I know that you acted in ignorance,\u00a0as did your leaders.\u00a018\u00a0But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold\u00a0through all the prophets,\u00a0saying that his Messiah would suffer.\u00a019\u00a0Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,\u00a0that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,\u00a020\u00a0and that he may send…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,1700,94,17,10,2036],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-james","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans","tag-timothy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1346,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}