The Times of Refreshing

How were Peter and John able to heal the lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate of the Jerusalem temple (Acts 3:1–10)? Peter made clear to the crowd of Jews who witnessed the miracle that the healing occurred through the power of Jesus. The Jews had rejected their Messiah, and their leaders, with the support of many of them, had facilitated the crucifixion of Jesus. Yet God raised Jesus from the dead and glorified Him, and Jesus then empowered His church with the Holy Spirit. Through faith, the Apostles drew on this power from the Lord and the lame man was healed. Jesus worked through them to restore the man’s use of his legs (vv. 11–16).

In explaining the power behind the miracle, Peter preached the truth about the work of Jesus, calling attention to the sin of his audience in supporting our Lord’s death. As we see in today’s passage, Peter then pressed on his audience their need to respond to the message. First, he noted that the people acted in ignorance even as the suffering of Jesus fulfilled the words of the old covenant prophets (vv. 17–18). Those who called for the execution of Jesus did not have a full awareness of what they were doing. They did not fully grasp Jesus’ identity as the divine Son of God; otherwise, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:8, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” Nevertheless, this ignorance did not render them innocent of their transgression, for Peter called them to repent of their role in crucifying Jesus (Acts 3:19). This illustrates the principle that while ignorance of God’s will may mitigate some of the consequences of sin, such ignorance does not make us guiltless when we violate our Creator’s law (Luke 12:35–48).

Peter said that the Jews should repent because it would prompt God to send the Christ and the times of refreshing (Acts 3:19–21). He was speaking of the return of Christ to bring the new heaven and earth (Rev. 21:1–22:5; see Isa. 65:17–25). Note how Peter connects the second coming of our Lord with actions on the part of people, particularly repentance. Later, he would write that the practice of repentance and living in holiness and godliness will hasten the coming of that final day when Jesus will restore all things fully and completely (2 Peter 3:8–13). In some mysterious way, the timing of the Lord’s return is tied to our response. God, of course, has fixed a day for the consummation of His blessed kingdom, a day that cannot be changed (Acts 1:6–7). From a human perspective, however, that day could come sooner than we might expect if we are faithful to the Lord.