Kingdom Gospel. Acts 3:10-12

Now that Jesus has died, been resurrected, has ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father the apostles, as a tremendous example of God’s continued grace to Israel even though they had rejected Jesus as Messiah, God continues to give them the opportunity to accept Jesus as the promised Messiah so that the kingdom would come. It is going to be very clear from Peter’s message here that the kingdom hasn’t come because it is conditioned upon the repentance of Israel as a nation. We are now in a transition period between the day of Pentecost and the judgment that God brings on Jerusalem and on Israel in AD 70 when God is still offering the kingdom to Israel—even though He knows they won’t respond and will continue in their hardness of heart. And instead of working with Israel as His chosen instrument God has begun a new work with a new organism, the church, which was given birth to on the day of Pentecost. So temporarily Israel is set aside because of unbelief.

As Paul presents it in such a picturesque image in Romans chapter eleven, using the picture of the olive tree, certain branches are cut off. That doesn’t mean they lose salvation or that it is impossible for them to have salvation or that God has forsaken Israel. Paul’s whole point in Romans 9-11 is that God has not forsaken Israel and what he is pointing out is that they are temporarily set aside from the position of blessing. The imagery of the olive tree is an image of blessing. The root is the Abrahamic covenant, and the Abrahamic covenant is the source of blessing to Israel. Olive oil and the growth of the olive tree are images that are used throughout the Old Testament to depict the richness of God’s blessing on whatever the object is. In this case it is Israel. The removal of the natural branches and the grafting in of the wild branches is a depiction of the fact that God is now blessing the wild olive branches, which stand for the Gentiles. The Gentiles are now in a position of blessing from the Abrahamic covenant. But, as Paul states in that imagery, the natural branches will be grafted back in to a place of blessing, and thus he concludes all Israel will be saved. There is a future plan for Israel and part of that we are seeing today in the restoration of the nation and the return of numerous Jews to the land.

But the period between Pentecost and the judgment on Jerusalem, a transition period, is an example where God is still reaching out to the nation Israel, and so there are certain things that are happening that happen in relation to that message while at the same time the new has started and there is a foundation being laid in the apostolic era for the church, this new organism. So when we come to passages in the first part of Acts we have to realize this is not describing something that is to be normative in the church age, it is not something we are to expect to happen in every generation. A problem that some folks have that is they go to Acts and see healing by the apostles and all these other miracles and think we should expect that today. No, we shouldn’t because we are not in the transition zone. The purpose for the miracles and the healing and all of these signs and wonders was to reinforce the kingdom message that the kingdom was being offered. But it was rejected by Israel ultimately and postponed until the Messiah actually does return at the second coming, and it is at that point in the future that He will establish the kingdom promised in the Old Testament.

Acts 3:10 ^NASB “and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to {beg} alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.” In he phrase “they were filled with wonder and amazement” the verb is an aorist passive indicative from pleroo [plhrow], the same verb that is used in Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled by means of the Holy Spirit.” It is also in a passive voice which means they receive the action of the verb, just as we receive the filling of the Holy Spirit, but this is not an imperative. It is in the indicative mood so it is simply describing something that took place. Then we have that English preposition “with.” We often see translations of Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” But this preposition “with” or “in” or “by” can all translate a Greek preposition en [e)n] with a dative object which expresses instrumentality or means. Means can be expressed in English by the preposition “with.” E.g. “Hit the ball with [by means of] the bat.” But “with” can also indicate other things, e.g. “Fill my cup up with whatever is in that pitcher.” In that sentence we are describing the content of the filling by using that preposition “with.” That is not talking about means but content. It is very easy to become confused with that English usage as to what is being said. This is why a lot of people when they read Ephesians 5:18 think that the content of the filling is the Holy Spirit, that they are getting more of the Holy Spirit. That is not what Paul is talking about at all, he is talking about instrumentality there, not content. We know that because in the Greek language content is not expressed with an en preposition and the dative case, it is expressed with a genitive noun. This is what we have in Acts 3:10: “and they were filled” and then the first word thambous [qambouj] is a genitive singular noun of thambos [qamboj], “with wonder and amazement ekstasis [e)kstasij]. Both of those nouns are in the genitive case, so this is expressing the content with which they are filled, or it is actually an idiom to express a description of somebody.

There are three other places in Acts where this same kind of phrase is found: Acts 5:17 ^NASB “But the high priest rose up, along with all his associates (that is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy.” Acts 13:45 ^NASB “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and {began} contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming.” Acts 19:29 ^NASB “The city was filled with the confusion…” Ephesians 5:18 is a completely different kind of construction than these.

The result of the healing. Acts 3:11 ^NASB “While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.” This was a wonder, it got their attention. That was a secondary purpose for a miracle, not the primary purpose which was to provide credentials that the claim of the Messiah to be offering the kingdom was valid and that He was present, or now in the post-resurrection time had been present. Peter will give an explanation in vv. 12-16 as to what has happened, and then he will challenge them about what its significance is for them in vv. 17-26. They just can’t believe what they have heard and what they have seen with their own eyes.

Acts 3:12 ^NASB “But when Peter saw {this,} he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” Peter is going to take the opportunity now that he has an audience to preach the gospel of the kingdom. There is a distinction between the gospel and the gospel of the kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom still focuses on the facts of regeneration and forgiveness of sin but it is targeted to response that by Israel accepting Jesus as Messiah then the promised messianic kingdom would come. In verse 12 Peter is not taking any credit for what had happened at all. Spiritual growth had taken place in Peter over the past several months, he has learned some humility and he immediately states, “We didn’t do this.” He recognizes that the power comes completely and totally from God. These people are the same people who would have been aware of what transpired on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles who started to communicate to everyone there in Jerusalem in their native languages through the miracle of the gift of languages. Not only that but two months earlier basically they were there when Jesus was crucified, and before that if they were native in the land they had heard about all of Jesus’ miracles. It is not as if they had no frame of reference for this whatsoever, and yet they are just astounded that this has happened. People are slow to figure out the meaning of the truth. A lot of people need to hear the gospel many times before they finally click.

Acts 3:13 ^NASB “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, {the one} whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.” At this point Peter is indicting the people because of their rejection of Jesus’ claim to be the Messiah. But this isn’t an indictment that is blaming all Jewish people or all Jews for His crucifixion. He is talking to the people who lived in Jerusalem primarily and were there among the crowd that was responsible for rejecting Jesus and accepting Barabbas in place of Jesus. So he is speaking to them and to that generation, he is not making a statement that is assigning blame to every Jew that walked on the face of the earth.

He begins by saying “The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He is very clear in how he is presenting his argument. He takes us back to the Old Testament, back to Genesis, and identifies the God he is speaking about. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is referred to by some key words in the Old Testament. First there is the Hebrew word El or Elohim in the plural—which would include the idea of a plurality within the Godhead—and that word is a cognate to a Canaanite word (also an Aramaic sword) which is just a generic name for God. But the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob also had a personal name which was represented by four letters in the Hebrew, YHWH. Because of the influence of German scholarship and other things there is usually a shift from the Y to a J and the W to a V—usually pronounced Yahweh. But if we are talking about El which is a generic term for God then we have to identify who it is that we are speaking about because El was also the name for the chief god in Canaanite pantheon. It is also a cognate of the Arabic word Allah. Allah is not a personal name for the Islamic god, it is just a generic name for deity, but Allah is not the same as El. Allah is the god of Abraham, Ishamel; not Abraham and Isaac. Allah is a god who hates the Jews and seeks their destruction at the end of time, but the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God who has chosen the Jewish people and will bring them to a time of restoration in the end and bless them. So Allah is not to be identified with the El of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; these are two distinct deities whose names in the generic form just happen to be similar.

Then he adds another phrase: “the God of our fathers.” That is, the patriarchs of Israel. So he is speaking to them specifically of the God who is revealed in the Old Testament and that this God glorified His servant Jesus. When he uses the phrase “His servant Jesus” he is once again using a loaded phrase. If you were a Jew at that time in history you were familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, and as soon as you heard that word “my servant” you would immediately be aware of many passages in Isaiah that relate to this promised future servant who would come and be identified as the Messiah.

Is 40:1, 2 ^NASB “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God. “Speak kindly to Jerusalem; And call out to her, that her warfare has ended, That her iniquity has been removed, That she has received of the LORD’S hand Double for all her sins.” Has that happened yet? No, this is speaking of a time when Jerusalem is to be comforted and Jerusalem’s warfare is ended. This is a prophetic statement that focuses on a future end time.

Isaiah 40:3 ^NASB “A voice is calling, ‘Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.’” This is a prophecy indicating that there would be an announcement prior to the coming of God to establish His kingdom, and this is the message that He would cry out. This was fulfilled by John the Baptist who was the forerunner of Jesus the Messiah. His message was “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” This chapter in Isaiah goes on to focus on the future establishment of the kingdom and again and again on this individual who is identified as “My servant.” E.g. Isaiah 42:1 ^NASB “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one {in whom} My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.” Who is speaking in that verse? God the Father. How many divine personages do we have there in that verse? Yahweh who is speaking, and His Spirit; two distinct entities. The concept of a plurality in the Godhead goes all the way back to Genesis chapter one and the word Elohim.

Isaiah 49:6 ^NASB “He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’” It is too narrow a concept to just lift up the tribes of Judah and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. So the Servant here is to supply salvation throughout the whole earth. [7] “Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel {and} its Holy One…” Acts 3:13, 14 refers to Jesus as the Holy One and the just. “… To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, ‘Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.’” So here there is a connection between the Holy One of Israel and the Servant. The Servant is seen as the servant of rulers but also one that the rulers, the kings, will rise and worship. So He is seen as being subordinate to the kings as a servant in one way and also the ruler in authority over the kings in another way.

Isaiah 52:13 ^NASB “Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. [14] Just as many were astonished at you, {My people,} So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.” So here the Servant is one who has clearly had something happen to Him that marred and harmed and destroyed His image and appearance. [15] “Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.”

Isaiah 53:1 ^NASB “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” The answer is going to be My Servant. [2] “For He grew up before Him [Yahweh] like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground [physical growth and development of the Messiah]; He has no {stately} form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.” There was nothing in Jesus’ appearance that would set Him apart from anybody else.

Isaiah 53:3 ^NASB “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” The first person plural here is talking about a collective unity, He is rejected and despised by man. Then verse 4 begins to the idea of substitutionary atonement. [4] “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.” In other words, He is viewed as an outcast, someone to stay away from; and yet He was the one who was bearing in His own body on the cross our sins. [5] “But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [our peace with God]{fell} upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. [6] All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.” This is a perfect picture of substitutionary payment for sin. [7] “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.” Through all of the suffering He never utters a word. Why? Because in the most excruciating torture and pain we can possibly imagine, when most of us would have been rendered unconscious after we had screamed ourselves hoarse, He doesn’t scream until God the Father imputes to Him the sins of the world. All of the physical pain that He endured was absolutely nothing to Him. What caused the pain was bearing our sins.

Isaiah 53:8 ^NASB “By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people [atonement], to whom the stroke {was due?} [9] His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. [10] “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting {Him} to grief; If He would render Himself {as} a guilt offering [atonement], He will see {His} offspring, He will prolong {His} days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. [11] As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see {it and} be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities [atonement]. [12] Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered [identified] with the transgressors [atonement]; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.” This is the key prophecy in all of Isaiah, and this is what would come to the mind of Peter’s hearers when he uses this terminology, My Servant, the Holy one and the just. He is identifying the Servant with Isaiah.

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