Jesus was sent to be a blessing

JESUS WAS SENT TO BE A BLESSING
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Acts 3:26, "Unto you first God, havingraised up his
Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every
one of you from his iniquities."
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The MissionOf Jesus Christ
Acts 3:26
R.A. Redford
Unto you first, etc. (Revised Version., "Servant," see margin). The Bible its
own interpreter. All acknowledge the greatness,wonderfulness, perfectionof
the gospelportrait. Misconstructionofthe facts by the Jew, by the unbelieving
philosopher, by the mere moralist, by the rationalist. The lastverse of the
apostle's sermona summing up Scripture and facts of history. So always
revelation and history explain one another. The truly evangelicalview of
Christ the only one that appeals to the universal human heart.
I. THE INFINITE FOUNDATION ON WHICH THE GOSPELRESTS. God
raisedup his Son (Servant); God senthim.

1. The twofold aspectof the Divine characterthus presented to us. Love
desiring to bless; righteousnessrequiring the putting awayof iniquities. All is
from the Father.
2. The person and the work of Christ revealedin their intimate union.
"Raisedup," comprehending the whole conceptionof the mediatorial
exaltation of Jesus Christ. Difference betweenhis history and that of any mere
human agentraisedup for action, the necessityfor all that we find in the
Scripture record. God knows it, though we may not see it.
3. The Scripture is not given to be workedup by men's devices into mere food
for human pride; it is a practicalBook, the foundation laid, to be built upon.
Christ was sentto bless us, and we canfind the blessing only as we seek it
practically.
II. THE UNIVERSAL MESSAGE TO THE WORLD.
1. The moral state of all men shows the necessityfor such a proclamation.
"Your iniquities. The history of the gospelreminds us that the most
religiously instructed were far from being the most godly. The superstitions
and oppositions of the world multiply its iniquities, Man cannot turn himself
to God.
2. The whole gospelmust be preached, or its true successcannotbe realized.
The mutilated Christianity of our time is proving itself impotent. We must
lead the hearts of men to a person; we must teachthem dependence on a
power; we must call them to newness of life, a life already made manifest
through Christ, both in his history and in the history of his people. Then:

3. The blessing should be put first and foremost. Blessing whichthe world has
been waiting for from the beginning, which it has been prepared for by the
dispensations, which it receivedin germ in Abraham and his seed, but which
is for all the families of the earth. Hence it was to the Jew first," as the
consecratedmessenger;but as the patriarchs were takento the larger sphere
of Egypt that they might come forth from it prepared to be God's messengers,
so Christianity must be takenfrom its Judaistic standpoint, and put into the
central position of the world's life, that it may draw to itself Greece and
Rome, the Eastand the West, the whole nature and existence ofhumanity. So
now the progress of man is from the emancipationof the individual, through
that of the nation, to the cosmopolitanblessednessofmankind as a race. The
mission of Christ is to eachand to all. - R.
Biblical Illustrator
Unto you first God, having raisedup His Son Jesus, sentHim to bless you.
Acts 3:26
Sent to bless you

W. Birch.
I. GOD SENT JESUS TO BLESS US. We should have thought that after the
Jews had slain the prophets, God would have had no more to do with them; or
that if He sent His own Son, it would be to take vengeance upon them. But
when the Jews murdered Jesus, whatwould you expectGod to do? A human
father could scarcelyforgive such murderers; it needs a God to do that. What
did He do? This: He raisedup Jesus, and not to punish evil-doers, but to bless.
Many look upon religion as a sadthing; but it is the most joyous inspiration of
life. Jesus is not a taskmaster;He gives rest to the weary and help to the
heavy-laden. He charms the dullest life, sweetens the bitterest cup, salves the
deepestwound, heals the most strickenheart, gives joy to the sorrowful, peace
to the troubled, hope to the despairing, pardon of sin to the penitent, salvation
from the powerof sin to the believer, and eternal felicity to all who trust Him.
II. GOD SENT JESUS TO BLESS US IN TURNING AWAY EVERY ONE
OF US FROM OUR INIQUITIES. Without sin life would be very joyous; but
when we yield to anything which we know to be wicked, gladness atonce
departs. A man may gratify his wickedpropensity, and by so doing satisfy, for
the time being, his physical appetite, but the hunger of his soul for peace is not
satisfied. The greedyboy, who hides behind the door, awayfrom his brothers,
to eat the whole of his big apple alone, is fully satisfying his appetite, yet he is
unhappy, and comes from his feastvexed, sullen, and spiritless. Had he
divided the apple amongsthis brothers, what a joyous lad he would have
been! Greediness, orany other sin, brings sorrow to the soul.
1. The greatestblessing, therefore, that God cangive us is to turn us away
from our sins. We may turn awayfrom sin in our outward life, and, at the
same time, love and indulge it in our hearts; but Jesus would turn us from sin
altogether;and in order to do so, He begins first with the heart. Make the
fountain pure, and the stream shall be pure. The philosophy of the unbeliever
tries to guide the human ship by outside pressure;but Jesus puts a rudder to
it, and gives it a magnetof love to show its pathway in the trackless deep. He is
not satisfiedwith half-measures. We must be turned awayfrom our sins.

There has been, unfortunately for the world, a church-organisationwhich has
allowedits priests to sell indulgences for sin. But Jesus knows sinto be so
hurtful, that He could not, at any price, give a licence to permit it. He came to
take sin away. A man says, "If I do not cheat, I shall have to go to the
workhouse."Jesusteachesus to reply, "Under such circumstances you would
be happier if you walkedalong an honest path to the workhouse, thanon the
road of cheating to a palace."As you would hastily pass a house in which you
know the small-pox to be, so would Jesus have us turn awayfrom sin. May the
Lord, likewise, turn away every one of us from our sins!
2. The text goes on to say, that God sent Jesus to bless us, in turning away
every one of us from our iniquities. Then the worstman in the world is
capable of being saved. Here is a man who has been guilty of many crimes,
and is now standing at the bar to receive sentence.The judge may say within
himself, "No goodcan be done with this man; he has been twice in penal
servitude, and we must now get rid of him altogether." "Penalservitude for
life!" But God dooms no man to life-servitude to sin. Jesus comes to open the
prison doors in the soulof every one of us; and the man who is the chief sinner
of this age may be saved. Your life may be like a tangled string, which you
have tried to unravel, but failing to do so, you have thrown it among the ashes.
That tangled string weariedyour patience, and you gave it up; but though
your life just now is like the tangledstring, Jesus is not weary of blessing you,
and in this world He will never give you up. As every tangled string can be
undone, so every sinful life can be converted. God sent Jesus to bless such as
you; and His skilful fingers, His loving heart, and His patient Spirit will work
in you until you are like Himself.
III. JESUS TURNS US FROM OUR INIQUITIES BY —
1. The powerful inducement of pleasing God. To call upon a man to turn from
iniquity because it will be a goodthing for himself is to appeal to his lowest

motive, and is not the most successfulway in winning souls. To bribe a man by
promising something goodif he will serve the Lord, or to intimidate him by
the threat of the torment of hell, is a popular way of winning men, but it is the
leastsuccessful. The most powerful force in the heart of a child is the love
which constrains him to obedience, because ifhe did wrong he knew it would
grieve his mother. Jesus draws us effectually from sin by reminding us of the
loving heart of God; our sin grieves Him, and it should pain us to grieve His
loving heart.
2. Revealing the goodnessofGod. His goodness in first loving us should draw
us to Himself. After Jesus had risen from the dead, He said, "Go and preach
the gospelto every creature, beginning at Jerusalem." He was not angry
because the Jews rejectedand crucified Him; and there was nothing in His
heart but love to them.
(W. Birch.)
The servant of the Lord and his blessing
A. Maclaren, D. D
Notice —
I. THE BOLDNESSAND LOFTINESS OF THE CLAIM WHICH IS HERE
MADE FOR JESUS CHRIST.
1. Long ago Peterhad said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
And as long as Jesus Christ had been with them none of them had waveredin
that belief; but the Cross shatteredall that for a time. "We trusted that it had
been He that should have redeemedIsrael." There had been plenty of
pretenders to the Messiahship(Acts 5:36), and death had disposedof all their
claims. And so it would have been with Christ, unless He had risen from the

dead. But the faith and hope in His Messiahshipwhich had died with Him on
the Cress, rose withHim to newness of life — as we see from such words as
these.
2. Now the characteristic ofthese early addresses containedin chap. 2.-4., is
the cleardecisivenesswith which they put forward Christ as the fulfilment of
Jewishprophecy. The Cross and the Resurrectel poured a flood of light on
the Old Testament. Almost every word here has reference to some great
utterance of the past, which now for the first time Peteris beginning to
understand.(1) "God, having raisedup His SonJesus." The reference is not to
the resurrection, but to the prediction in ver. 22. Now that prediction, no
doubt, refers to the prophetic order, and the word, "a prophet," is a
collective, meaning a class. But the order does not come up to the ideal of the
prophecy. For the appendix to the Book of Deuteronomyis plainly referring
to the prophecy, when it sadly says, "And there arose not a prophet since in
Israellike unto Moses." The prophetic order, then, was a prophecy by reason
of the very incompleteness ofthe noble men who composedit; not only by
their words, but by their office and by their limitations, they pointed onwards
to Him who not only, like the greatlaw-giver, beheld God face to face, but
from the beginning dwelt in the bosom of the Fatherand therefore declares
Him perfectly to men. The manifold methods and fragmentary portions of the
revelations to the prophetic order are surpassedby the one final and complete
utterance in the Son, as noonday outshines the twilight dawn.(2) "His Son
Jesus" means, literally, a "boy" or a "child," and like our own English
equivalent, is sometimes used with the meaning of "a servant." For instance,
we talk about "a boy," or "a maid," or "a man," meaning thereby to express
the factof service in a gracefuland gentle way; to coverover the harsher
features of authority. So the centurion in Matthew's Gospel, whenhe asks
Christ to heal his little page, calls him "his boy," which our Bible properly
translates as "servant." The reasons foradopting "servant" here rather than
"son" are these:that the New Testamenthas a distinct expressionfor the
"Sonof God," which is not the word employed here: and that the Septuagint
has the same expressionwhich is employed here as the translation of Isaiah's,
"the Servant of the Lord."(a) Now it is interesting to notice that this.

expressionas applied to Jesus Christ only occurs atthis period. Altogether it
occurs four times in these two chapters, and never again. Does notthat look
like the frequent repetition of a new thought which had just come to a man
and was taking up his whole mind for the time? The Cross and the
resurrectionhad opened his eyes to see that the dim majestic figure that
lookedout on him from the prophecy had had a historicalexistence in the
dear Masterwhom he had lived beside; and we can almostperceive the
gladness and surprise swelling his heart as he thinks — "Ah! then He is 'My
servant whom I upheld.' Of whom speakeththe prophet this? Wonder of
wonders, it is of Jesus of Nazareth, and we are His witnesses." If you turn to
the secondhalf of Isaiah's prophecies, you will find that they might almost be
calledthe biography of the Servant of the Lord. And whilst I admit that the
collective Israelis often intended by the title "the Servant of the Lord," there
remain other parts of the prophecy which have distinctly a person for their
subject, and which cannotapply to any but Him that died and lived again. For
instance, is there anything which cancorrespondto the words, "when His soul
shall make an offering for sin He shall see His seed"? Who is it whose death is
the birth of His children, whom after His death He will see? Who is it whose
death is His own voluntary act? Who is it whose deathis a sacrifice for others'
sin? Who is it whose days are protracted after death, and who carries out
more prosperously the pleasure of the Lord after He has died?(b) But that
name on Peter's lips is not only a reference to prophecy, but it is a very
beautiful revelation of the impressionof absolute perfectionwhich Christ's
charactermade. Here was a man who knew Christ through and through; and
the impressionmade upon him was this: "All the time that I saw Him there
was never a trace of anything but perfect submission to the Divine will." Jesus
assertedthe same thing for Himself. "I do always the things that please Him":
"Which of you convinceth Me of sin?" Strange claims from one who is meek
and lowly of heart! Strangerstill, the world, not usually tolerant of
pretensions to sanctity, has allowedand endorsedthe claim.(c) So the claim
rises up into yet loftier regions;for clearlyenough, a perfect and stainless man
is either an impossible monster or something more. And they that fully believe
that God's will was absolutelyand exclusively done by Jesus Christ, in all
consistencymust go a step further and say, "He that perfectly did the Father's
will was more than one of us, stainedand sinful men."

II. THE DAWNING VISION OF A KINGDOM OF WORLD-WIDE
BLESSINGS.
1. Peterand all his brethren had had their full share of Jewishprejudices. But
I suppose that when they found the tongues of fire sitting on their heads they
beganto apprehend that they had been intrusted with a world-wide gospel.
The words before us mark very clearly the growing of that consciousness,
while yet the Jewishprerogative of precedence is firmly held. "Unto you first"
— that was the law of the apostolic working. But they were beginning to learn
that if there were a "first," there must also be a "second";and that the very
words of promise to the father of the nation which he had just quoted pointed
to "all the nations of the earth" being blessedin the seedof Abraham. If Israel
was first to receive the blessing, it was only that through Israel it might flow
over into the whole Gentile world. That is the true spirit of "Judaism," which
is so often spokenofas "narrow" and "exclusive." There is nothing clearerin
the Old Testamentthan that the candle is lighted in Israelin order that it
might shed light on all the chambers of the world. That was the genius of
"Judaism," and that is Peter's faith here.
2. Then, again, what grand confidence is here! What a splendid audacity of
faith it is for the apostle with his handful of friends to stand up in the face of
his nation to say: "This Man, whom you hung on a tree, is going to be the
blessing of the whole world." Why, it is like the old Roman story of putting up
to auction in the Forum the very piece of land that the enemy's camp was
pitched upon, whilst their tents were visible over the wall. And how did all
that come? Was all that heroism and enthusiasm born out of the grave of a
dead man? The resurrectionwas the foundation of it, and explains it, as
nothing else cando.

III. THE PURELY SPIRITUAL CONCEPTION OF WHAT CHRIST'S
BLESSING IS. What has become of all the Jewishnotions of the blessings of
Messiah's kingdom? Thathad not been the kind of kingdom of which they
had dreamed when they had soughtto be first in it. But now the Cross had
taught Peterthat Him hath God raised up a Prince and a Saviour to give —
strange gift for a prince to have in his hand — "to give repentance unto Israel,
and remissionof sins."
1. The heart, then, of Christ's work for rice world is deliverance from sin.
That is what man needs most. There are plenty of other remedies offered for
the world's ills — culture, art, new socialarrangements, progress of science
and the like, but the disease goesdeeperthan these things cancure. You may
as well try to put out Vesuvius with a teaspoonfulof coldwater as to cure the
sicknessofhumanity with anything that does not grapple with the
fundamental mischief, and that is a wickedheart. There is only one Man that
ever pretended He could deal with that, and it took Him all His power to deal
with it; but He did it! And there is only one way by which He could deal with
it, and that was by dying for it, and He did it! So He has conquered. "Canst
thou draw out leviathan with an hook?" When you can lead a crocodile out of
the Nile with a bit of silk thread round his neck, you will be able to overcome
the plague of the world, and that of your own heart, with anything short of the
greatsacrifice made by Jesus Christ.
2. The secretof most of the mistakenand partial views of Christian truth lies
here, that people have not gotinto their hearts and consciences a sense oftheir
own sinfulness. And so you get a tepid, self-sufficient and superficial
Christianity; and you getceremonials, and high and dry morality,
masquerading under the guise of religion: and you gelUnitarian and semi-
Unitarian tendencies in churches. But if once there came a wholesome, living
consciousnessofsin all such mutilated Christianity would crumble.

3. So I beseechyou to put yourself in the right place to understand the gospel
by the recognitionof that fact. But do not stop there. It is a matter of life and
death for you to put yourselves in the right place to receive Christ's richest
blessing. You canonly do that by feeling your own personalsin, and so
coming to Him to do for you what you cannotdo for yourselves, and no one
but He can do for you.
4. And notice how strongly the text puts the individuality of this process.
"Every one" — or rather "eachone." The inadequate notions of Christianity
that I have been speaking aboutare all characterisedby this amongstother
things: that they regard it as a socialsystemdiffusing socialblessingsand
operating on communities by elevating the generaltone and quickening the
public conscience andso on. Christianity does do that. But it begins with
dealing with men one by one. Christ is like a great King, who passing through
the streets ofHis capital scatters His largesseoverthe multitude, but He
reserves His richestgifts for the men that enter His presence chamber. Even
those of us who have no close personalunion with Him receive of His gifts.
But for their deepestneeds and their highest blessings they must go to Christ
by their own personalfaith — the flight of the solitary soul to the only Christ.
(A. Maclaren, D. D)
Christ and His blessing
T. Manton.
I. THE PARTIES CONCERNED.Why was the first offer of Christ made to
the Jews?
1. Becausethey were the only Church of God for that time. And God hath so
much respectfor the Church, that they shall have the refusal and the
morning-market of the gospel.

2. They were the children of the covenant (ver. 25). God follows a covenant
people with more offers of grace than others.
3. Christ came of them after the flesh, and was of their seed(Romans 9:5), to
teachus to seek the salvationof our kindred first.
4. That He might magnify His grace and faithfulness, not only in the matter of
the gospel, but even in the first offer of it (Romans 15:8; 1 Thessalonians 2:14,
15).
5. This was necessarytoo for the confirmation of the gospel. Christdid not
stealinto the world privately, but He would have His law setup where, if
there were any falsehoodin it, it might easilybe disproved; and because the
main of the Jewishdoctrine was adoptedinto the Christian, and was
confirmed by the prophecies of the Old Testament, they were the only
competent judges to whose cognisancethese things should be first offered.
6. That the ruin of that nation might be a fit document and proof of God's
severity againstthe contemners of the new gospel(Acts 13:45-47).
7. That the first ministers might be a pattern of obedience, to preachwhere
God would have them, to preach in the very face and teeth of opposition.
II. THE BENEFIT OFFERED:wherein is setforth the greatlove of God unto
the people to whom the gospelcomes.

1. In designing such a glorious person as Jesus Christ: "having raised up His
Son Jesus."
2. In that He gave notice, and did especiallydirect and send Him to them:
"hath sent His Son."
3. Why He came among them in His Word: it was "to bless them."
III. THE BLESSING INTERPRETED. Theyexpecteda pompous Messiah,
that should make them an opulent and potent nation. But Christ came to
convert souls unto God.
IV. WHAT IT IS TO BE TURNED FROM SIN. Take these considerations:
1. Man fallen, lay under the power and guilt of sin (Ephesians 2:1-3). So man
was both unholy and guilty.
2. Christ came to free us from both these.
(1)The guilt (Ephesians 1:7);
(2)and the power (Titus 3:5).

3. To be turned from sin implies our whole conversion. Though one part only
be mentioned, the term "from which," yet the term "to which" is implied
(chap. Acts 26:18).
4. That remissionof sins is included in our conversionto God (ver. 19, chap.
Acts 5:31).
V. IT IS A BLESSED THING TO BE MADE PARTAKERS OF THIS
BENEFIT. Blessedness imports two things —
1. An immunity from, or a removal of, the greatevil, and that is sin.
(1)The greatcause ofoffence betweenGod and us is takenout of the way
(Isaiah 59:2).
(2)We are freed from the greatblemish of our natures (Romans 3:23).
(3)We are freed from the greatburden of sin.
(4)Being turned from our sins, we are freed from the greatbane of our
persons and all our happiness (Psalm 32:1, 2; Romans 8:1).
2. The enjoyment of positive good. It is a blessedthing to be turned from our
sins because —

(1)This is the matter of our serenity, comfort, and peace here (Isaiah 32:17).
(2)It is the pledge of our eternal felicity hereafter; for heaven is the perfection
of holiness, or the full fruition of Godin glory (Hebrews 12:14; Ephesians
1:13, 14).
(T. Manton.)
Christ and His blessing
I. GOD RAISED UP HIS SON JESUS TO BE A PROPHET (ver. 22,
Deuteronomy 18:15).
1. To teachthe will of God (Isaiah61:1).
2. To expound it to us (John 14:2; John 15:15).
(1)By His prophets (1 Peter 3:19; Nehemiah9:30).
(2)Himself (Hebrews 1:1, 2; Hebrews 2:2, 3).
(3)His apostles (2 Corinthians 5:19, 20).
(4)His ministers (Ephesians 4:11, 12).
II. GOD SENT HIM.

1. By promise in the Old Testament(1 Peter1:10, 11; 1 Peter3:19; Genesis
3:15).
2. In person in the New (Galatians 4:4, 5).(1) First to the Jews (Acts 2:39;
John 4:22).
(a)He was first promised to them.
(b)Born of them.
(c)ManifestedHimself first among them (Matthew 4:12, 17).(2)To the
Gentiles also (Acts 2:39; Acts 11:18;Acts 15:7-9; Galatians 3:14; Genesis
22:17, 18).
III. HE WAS SENT TO BLESS US (Genesis 22:17, 18).
1. To purchase a blessing for us (Galatians 3:13, 14).
2. To apply it to us.
IV. HIS GREAT BLESSING IS CONVERSION FROM SIN (Psalm1:1;
Psalm32:1, 2). lsit not a blessedthing to know —

1. Our sins pardoned (Matthew 9:2).
2. God reconciled(Romans 5:1).
3. That we have an interestin Christ (1 John 3:24).
4. To have a pacified conscience(2 Corinthians 1:12).
5. To delight ourselves in the best things (Psalm 1:2).
6. To be related to God (Galatians 4:6).
7. To have all things blessedto us (Romans 8:28).
8. To have an infallible evidence of our title to heaven (Romans 8:1; Matthew
25:46).
V. CHRIST HAS PURCHASED THIS BLESSING FOR US (Matthew 1:21; 1
Peter1:18; Titus 2:14; 1 John 3:8).
1. What?
(1)Pardon; therefore conversion(Ezekiel18:30;chap. Acts 2:38).

(2)Peacewith God; therefore conversion.
(3)Redemption from misery; therefore conversion(Luke 13:3).
(4)Heaven; therefore conversion(John 3:16; Hebrews 13:14).
2. How? Note —
(1)All men are sinners.
(2)Christ undertook to cleanse us from our sins.
(3)This could not be but by purchasing the same grace we lostby sin.
(4)No way to obtain grace but by the Spirit of God.(Ezekiel36:27;Numbers
14:24).
(5)God would not send His Spirit until man's sins were satisfiedfor, and so
God reconciled.
(6)Christ by His death satisfies forsin (1 John 2:2).

(7)And so purchased the donation of the Spirit (John 16:7).
(8)The Spirit sent into our hearts, turns us from sin (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
(Bp. Beveridge.)
The blessedmission
H. Allon, D. D.
I.GOD'S GRACIOUS ACT, "Raisedup Jesus."
II.GOD'S MERCIFULPURPOSE, "To bless you."
III.GOD'S BLESSED WAY, "By turning every one of you," etc.
IV.GOD'S GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT,"To you first"
(H. Allon, D. D.)
The gospelblessing
DeanVaughan.
I. THE WORK IS NOT DESCRIBEDONLYAS CHRIST'S, BUT RATHER
AS GOD'S WORKIN CHRIST. We are too ready to make a difference; to
think of God as all justice, and of Christ as all love. In past days men had used
a loose and unscriptural language about Christ's calming God's wrath. The
language ofScripture is always this: "Godso loved the world," etc. What

things soeverthe Son doeth, these also doeth the Father likewise. There is but
one will, one work. Neverrun awayfrom God, but ever seek Him and see Him
in the Son.
II. CHRIST HAS A MISSION TO US. There is no thought more delightful
than that of the missionof Christ as He now is in heaven; of His having an
errand, and apostleshipstill towards us (Hebrews 3:1). We are all calledto
from heaven: that is the meaning of "partakers ofa heavenly calling." We are
all like Saul of Tarsus when Jesus Christ spoke to him suddenly from heaven.
Christ is calling to us. In His Word, by His minister, in conscience, by His
Spirit also. And then, as we recognise this truth, we are told also to fix our
thoughts upon Him as "the apostle ofour profession" (or confession). Godhas
sent, is sending, Him to us, with a message,addressedto eachone of us
separately, "everyone of you," not a vague, general, promiscuous mission, but
a direct and single one to each. You are not lost in a crowd. If this be so, "how
shall we escape if we neglectso great," becauseso minute and so personal, "a
salvation?"
III. A MISSION OF WHAT SORT? Is it that of One who comes from the
dead to appal and to terrify? the apparition of a reprover and a prophet of
evil? Hear the text: "to bless you"; to speak wellof you; to declare goodto
you; and in the very act of doing so, to communicate the goodof which He
tells. Is not this the very notion of a Gospel? It is not a threatening, a reproof,
it is not even a condition of acceptance,ora rule of duty: it does not say, like
the Law, "Do this, and thou shalt live": its essentialcharacteris that of an
announcement; tidings of something alreadydone; the goodnews of some
change which God has made in our state and in our prospects. And what is
that? Surely that Godforgives us, whatsoeverwe are. God sent Him not to
curse, but to bless;not to judge the world, but to save.
IV. How is THIS MISSION OF BLESSING MADE EFFECTUAL?

1. Is it a flattering of human vanity, a lulling of human indolence, the
intelligence that God has forgiven, and that therefore man may lie asleepin
his sins that, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, and that
therefore we may continue in sin if only to swellthe triumphs of Divine grace?
None of these things. "SentHim to bless you, in turning awayeachone of you
from his iniquities."
2. Does this description of Christ's work seemto militate againstthe former?
Does any one say, Then, after all, the gospelis a law: it is only the old story
once again, You must be holy, and then Godwill save? Oh the ignorance and
the hardness of these hearts of ours! Is there no difference betweenworking
for forgiveness andworking from forgiveness, betweenbeing holy because we
are loved, and being holy that we may be loved, betweenthe being
commanded to turn ourselves from our sins, and the being blessedby finding
ourselves turned from them by another? Your hearts tell you that there is all
the difference!Which of us knows not something of the force of gratitude?
Which of us has not felt that it is one thing to please a personas a duty, and
another to please a personout of love? Which of us has not knownthe strange
effectof a word or an act of affection, from one whom we are conscious that
we have injured? how it sometimes rolls awaythe whole barrier betweenus,
makes us ashamedof our ill-temper, and heaps coals of fire upon our head?
Even thus is it with the man whom God has forgiven. How did David begin to
inquire, "What reward can I give unto the Lord for all His benefits that He
hath done unto me?" and answerhimself, saying, "I will receive the cup of
salvation, and callupon the name of the Lord": yea, I will love much, having
been much forgiven!
3. But there may be some here present who cannotunderstand the connection
of the words. They may be saying, I know that my sins are wrong; and I can
understand being required to part with them: but how can it be a blessing to
give up this pleasantthing which sin is to me? But does your sin make you
happy? Have you found the pleasure of sinning as greatas its anticipation?

Have you found the morning after sinning a bright and pleasantawakening?
Have you never known what it was to curse the fetter which bound you, and
to long (even without hoping) to be free? Have you not sometimes lookedback
upon a past and now unattractive sin with bitter remorse, with astonishment
at your own infatuation? Then that experience has shownyou what it would
be to look back upon a life of sin, from a world where it will be too late ever to
repent. A thing which has all these marks of misery upon it cannotbe
happiness. If there is any power or any person, in earth or in heaven, who can
setus free from this influence, the coming of that poweror that person may
indeed be said to be a blessing. Costus what it may, it will be a blessing if it
succeeds. And when that victory is wrought wholly through the powerof love;
through an assurance offree forgiveness;through the agencyofan inward
influence as sweetas it is constraining; how much more may it be so regarded!
God grant that eachone of us may know it for ourselves!
(DeanVaughan.)
The blessing of Christ in the heart
Lady Somersetat Chicago saidthat in a fisherman's but in the extreme north-
eastof Scotland, she saw a picture of our Saviour, and as she stoodlooking at
it the fisherman told her its story: "I was waydown with the drink," he said,
"when one night I went into a 'public,' and there hung this picture. I was
soberthen, and I saidto the bar-tender, 'Sell me that picture, this is no place
for the Saviour.' I gave him all the money I had for it, and took it home. Then,
as I lookedat it, the words of my mother came back to me, I dropped on my
knees, and cried, 'O Lord Jesus, will you pick me up again, and take me out of
all my sin?'" No such a prayer is everunanswered. To-day that fisherman is
the grandestman in that little Scotchvillage. "I askedif he had no struggle to
give up liquor; such a look of exultation came over his face as he answered,
'Oh, madam, when such a Saviour comes into the heart He takes the love of
drink right out of it.' This Saviour is ready to take every sin out of your heart
if only you will let Him."

Christ's errand of mercy
T. L. Cuyler.
After the long, sharp winter, a bright, beautiful day comes like a benediction.
As I lookedup toward the welcome sun, this thought came into my mind:
Yonder sun is ninety-six millions of miles away. These rays of light have
travelled all that stupendous distance, and yet I have only to drop the curtain
of my eyelid and I am left in total darkness. There might as well be no sun as
to have his rays shut out at the last instant from this little doorwayof my eye.
Even so has the Lord Jesus Christ come from His infinite, far-awaythrone, on
His errand of mercy, to a sinner's soul. That sinner has but to close up his
heart's door and keepit bolted, and for him there might as wellhave been no
redemption and no Redeemer. Eternallife is refused, eternal death is chosen
at that very spot, the door of the human heart.
(T. L. Cuyler.)
The generous missionof Christ
T. De Witt Talmage.
When Madame Sontag beganher musical careershe was hissedoff the stage
at Vienna by the friends of her rival, Amelia Steininger, who had already
begun to decline through her dissipation. Years passedon, and one day
Madame Sontag, in her glory, was riding through the streets of Berlin, when
she saw a child leading a blind woman, and she said, "Come here, my little
child, come here. Who is that you are leading by the hand?" And the little
child replied, "That's my mother; that's Amelia Steininger. She used to be a
greatsinger, but she losther voice, and she cried so much that she lost her
eyesight." "Give my love to her," said Madame Sontag, "andtell her an old
acquaintance will call on her this afternoon." The next week in Berlin a vast
assemblagegatheredata benefit for that poor blind woman, and it was said
that Madame Sontag sang that night as she had never sung before. And she
took a skilled oculist, who in vain tried to give eyesightto the poor blind
woman. Until the day of Amelia Steininger's death, Madame Sontag took care

of her, and her daughter after her. That was what the queen of song did for
her enemy. But, oh, hear a more thrilling story still. Blind, immortal, poor and
lost, thou who, when the world and Christ were rivals for thy heart, didst hiss
thy Lord away— Christ comes now to give thee sight, to give thee a home, to
give thee heaven. With more than a Sontag's generosityHe comes now to meet
your need. With more than Sontag's music He comes to plead for thy
deliverance.
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
God's plan for making us happy
J. W. Norton, D. D.
We are told, in a simple allegory, that when man was made in the image of
God, one of the bright angels aboutthe throne was appointed to wait upon
him, and to be his constantcompanion. After this beautiful image had been
marred by sin, Happiness could no longerrecognise the Heavenly Father's
likeness upon earth, and pined to go back to her happy home on high. Fallen
and wretchedman now wanderedabout searching for a friend to make good
his loss. He lookedon the fair face of Nature, and saw her gay and cheerful;
but Nature assuredhim that she could offer no alleviation for his misery. Love
appearedso bright and joyous, that man, in his disappointment, turned next
to her; but she timidly shrank back at his approach, while her tender eyes
overflowedwith tears of sympathy. He now soughtfriendship, and she sighed
and answered, "Caprice, anxiety, and the fearof change are ever before me."
Disappointed at these repeatedfailures, man followed after Vice, who boasted
loudly, and promised greatthings; but even while she talkedwith him the
borrowedroses dropped from her withered brow, and disclosedthe wrinkles
of sorrow and the deep furrows ploughed by pain. Retreating in haste from
the haunts of the vile enchantress, he now soughtfor Virtue, hoping that the
secretof happiness might be learned from her; but she assuredhim that
Penitence was her proper name, and that she was powerlessto bestow the
boon he craved. Brought down at last to the verge of despair, man applied to
grim Death, who relaxed his forbidding aspect, while he answeredwith a

smile: "Happiness can no longerbe found upon the earth. I am really the
friend of man, and the guide to the blessednesswhichhis heart yearns after.
Hearkento the voice of Him who died on the Cross of Calvary, and I will, at
last, lead man through the shades of the dark valley to the delectable
mountains, where Happiness makes her perpetual abode." The allegorywhich
I have thus tried to .repeat, is a mere expansion of the text. God does not
secure happiness to His people —
I. BY MAKING ALL OF THEM RICH. Instead of saying, "Blessedare ye
rich," He says, "Blessedare the poor." The only really happy rich man is the
one who acts as God's steward, paying his lawful tithes to the Church, and
dealing kindly with the suffering poor. Dr. Guthrie says:"Moneywill buy
plenty, but not peace;money will furnish your table with luxuries, but not you
with an appetite to enjoy them; money will surround your bed with
physicians, but not restore health to your sicklyframe: it will encompass you
with a crowdof flatterers, but never promise you one true friend; it will bribe
into silence the tongues of accusing men, but not an accusing conscience;it
will pay some debts, but not one, the least, of your debts to the law of God; it
will relieve many fears, but not those of guilt, the terrors that crownthe hour
of death."
II. By bestowing on us the empty honours of the world. It is true, multitudes
imagine that happiness is to be found in them; but experience always proves
how grievously they were mistaken. The devil seems to have persuaded
himself that even the Son of God could be tempted by such a bribe. A
mandarin puffed up with a sense of his high position was fond of appearing in
the public streets, sparkling with jewels. He was annoyed, one day, by an
uncouth personage, who followedhim about, bowing often to the ground, and
thanking him for his jewels. "Whatdoes the man mean?" cried the mandarin;
"I never gave you any of my jewels." "No,"returned the other; "but you have
let me look at them, and that is all the use you can make of them yourself. The
only difference betweenus is, that you have the trouble of watching them."

III. BY AFFORDING THEM A LARGE SHARE OF WORLDLY
PLEASURE. Mostof the things which are called "worldly pleasures " not
only fail to make people happy, but leave positive misery behind them. And
then, the terrible phantom, which, in moments of solitude and silence, must
disturb the minds of the most frivolous — the end; when God shall bring all
these things into judgment. When the Chevalier Gerard De Kampis, a rich
and proud man, had finished his magnificent castle, he gave a great
entertainment to all his wealthy neighbours. At the close of the sumptuous
banquet, the guests made speechafter speech, lauding their host to the skies,
and declaring him to be the happiest of men. As the chevalierloved flattery,
this fragrant incense was mostacceptable;and nothing disturbed his
equanimity, until one of the guests who had, thus far, kept silence, gravely
remarked: "Sir Knight, in order that your felicity should be complete, you
require but one thing, but this is a very important item." "And what thing is
that?" demanded the astonishednobleman. "One of your doors must be
walled up," replied his guest. At this strange rejoinder severalof the guests
laughed aloud, and while Gerard himself beganto think the man was mad, he
preservedself-controlenough to ask:"Which door do you mean?" "I mean
that through which you will one day be carried to your grave." The words
struck both guests and host, and the proud man saw the vanity of all earthly
things, and beganfrom that moment to lay up treasure in heaven.
IV. BUT BY SENDING HIS SON JESUS, "TO TURN AWAY EVERY ONE
OF THEM FROM HIS INIQUITIES." There can be no salvation for us,
unless we are delivered from our sins. God only makes men happy by making
them holy (Matthew 1:21). Lycurgus would allow none of his laws to be
written, insisting that the principles of government must be interwoven with
the lives and manners of the people, as the only sure way of promoting their
happiness. He who would abide by the commandments of God must be able to
say with David, "Thy word have I hid within my heart." He who will be
receivedinto the presence of God and enjoy the blessedness ofheaven, is "the
new man, which after God is createdin righteousness andtrue holiness"
(Ephesians 4:24). We are made heirs of glory only by putting on Christ; but
we are "made meet for the inheritance of the saints" through a studied and

careful conformity to the Divine precept: "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Sayof
no sin, howevertrivial it may appear, "Is it not a little one? " but following
after holiness, let evil under every possible disguise be your abhorrence.
(J. W. Norton, D. D.)
The gospelturns men from sin
J. B. Walker.
If a physician were calledto see a patient who had a canceron his breast, the
only thing to be done would be to cut it out from the roots. The physician
might give palliatives, so that the patient would have less pain — or he might
make his patient believe it was no cancer — or forgetthat he had a cancer
near his vitals; but if the physician were to do this instead of removing the
evil, he would be a wickedman and the enemy of his patient. The man's case
was such that the only favour which could be conferredupon him would be to
cut out the cancer. Now allagree that sin is the greatevil of the soul of man.
Nothing can make man more spiritually happy here, or fit him for happiness
hereafter, but the removal of sin from his nature. Sin is the plague-spoton the
soul which destroys its peace, andthreatens its destruction unless removed. It
is therefore certain that if the love of God were manifestedtowards man, it
would be in turning man from sin which produces misery, to holiness which
produces happiness.
(J. B. Walker.)
Turning awayevery one of you from his iniquities
The blessednessofconversion
T. Webster, B. D.

I. THAT THE INDULGENCE OF SIN IS THE GRAND SOURCE OF
HUMAN MISERY. We increase by our own transgressions the maladies to
which we are naturally exposed:our understandings become more confused;
our affections more depraved; our passions, appetites andtempers more
unrestrained and virulent; our disappointments more bitter and acute;and all
this progressive advancementin evil and misery is the consequence of
increasing indulgence in sin.
II. THAT CHRIST ESPECIALLY BLESSES HIS PEOPLE IN TURNING
AWAY EVERY ONE OF THEM FROM THEIR INIQUITIES.
1. In that as a prophet He enlightens their understanding to perceive the evil,
the misery, and the ruinous consequencesofsin, both as it regards the present
and the future state.
2. This turning from iniquities is progressive;at first the gross and outward
acts of sin are cut off, unlawful and expedient pleasures, and indulgences
follow, many things of a doubtful and indifferent nature are then
relinquished. The tongue, the temper, the thoughts, are gradually brought
more and more under regulation and restraint; holy principles are cultivated;
the spirit of fervent charity takes possessionofthe soul; and pity, meekness,
forbearance, compassion, patience, holyresignation, lively hope, and heavenly
joy increase andabound.
(T. Webster, B. D.)
The return of the affections to God
G. T. Noel, M. A.
The history of man on this side of the grave is like the history of the natural
world: the seasonschange;if the winter chills, the summer warms; if darkness

wraps in its shade, light cheers with its brilliancy. Thus joy and sorrow, hope
and fear, satisfactionand perplexity are mingled together. Under these
circumstances it is very material to know whether there be any mode of
defending ourselves againstsuchan increase ofsorrow, and of insuring to
ourselves suchan increase ofcomfort. Here in the text is a chart to the
wanderer, a light to the benighted, a shelter to the forlorn, a certainty to the
dubious! The misery of man lies chiefly in the circumstances ofhis moral
condition; he is wretchedunder the effects of his iniquities. His remedy must
be found in the return of his affections to God; God sentChrist to bless you by
turning you awayfrom your iniquities. The sorrows ofman mainly issue from
the depravity of his affections. He is guilty before God. Certainly his passions,
earthly and selfish, spurn every barrier when occasions exasperate their
movements. To restrain them under such excitements is as impracticable, as,
by the weight of the dews of heaven, to chain down the fiery matter which a
volcano is about to castforth. But to come to individual experience. From
whence does the largestportion of man's sufferings arise? Is it not from the
disordered state of his affections? Is there not a disease ofthe heart, which is
widely prevalent, and which no skill can heal? To reproduce happiness in a
sinful being requires, therefore, a remedy applicable to the inward disease in
his mind; a remedy which not only respects a new and favourable relation on
the part of God, but also a new and holy state of the affections on the part of
man. In other words, the happiness of a sinner will depend first upon, the
conviction that God has pardoned him, and secondly, upon the consciousness
that he loves the Being who has thus tenderly dealt with him. Now the remedy
which Christianity brings forward to the view of him who believes it, is
exactly of this kind. "Jesus Christcame to bless you by turning awayevery
one of you from his iniquities." He holds out to us pardon and peace, and He
gives us the disposition to love the nature and the heart from which that
pardon flows!In this complex operation the means of human happiness are
unfolded. The pardon of sin is complete and free, uncloggedwith any
condition or qualification. "There is no more condemnation," but perfect
reconciliationand peace. Now the belief in this truth, under the agencyof the
Spirit, conveys healing to the heart. Sin becomes loathsome whenits
consequencesare thus made visible in the personalsufferings of Jesus Christ,
and obedience to the will and mind of God then becomes identicalwith peace

and happiness. Thus Christ blesses by turning awayfrom iniquity, by
procuring at once the pardon of sin, and by healing the disease ofsin; by
restoring peace in the relations betweenGodand man, and by making God's
characterthe glowing objectof attractive imitation.
(G. T. Noel, M. A.).
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(26) Unto you first. . . .—Here againwe note, even in the very turn of the
phrase as well as of the thought, an agreementwith St. Paul’s formula of the
purpose of God being manifested “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile”
(Acts 13:46; Romans 1:16; Romans 2:9-10). St. Peterdoes not as yet know the
conditions under which the gospelwill be preachedto the heathen; but his
words imply a distinct perceptionthat there was a call to preach to them.
His SonJesus.—Better, as before, Servant. (See Note on Acts 3:13.)
Sent him to bless you.—The Greek structure gives the presentparticiple
where the English has the infinitive, sent Him as in the actof blessing. The
verb which strictly and commonly expresses a spokenbenediction is here used
in a secondarysense, as conveying the reality of blessedness. And the blessing
is found, not in mere exemption from punishment, not even in pardon and
reconciliation, but in a change of heart, in “turning eachman from his
wickednesses.” The plural of the abstractnoun implies, as in Mark 7:22, all
the many concrete forms in which man’s wickedness couldshow itself.

MacLaren's Expositions
Acts
THE SERVANT OF THE LORD
Acts 3:26.
So ended Peter’s bold address to the wondering crowdgathered in the Temple
courts around him, with his companion John and the lame man whom they
had healed. A glance at his words will show how extraordinarily outspoken
and courageous they are. He charges home on his hearers the guilt of Christ’s
death, unfalteringly proclaims His Messiahship, bears witness to His
Resurrectionand Ascension, assertsthat He is the End and Fulfilment of
ancient revelation, and offers to all the greatblessings that Christ brings. And
this fiery, tender oration came from the same lips which, a few weeks before,
had been blanched with fear before a flippant maidservant, and had quivered
as they swore, ‘I know not the man!’
One or two simple observations may be made by wayof introduction. ‘Unto
you first’-’first’ implies second;and so the Apostle has shakenhimself clearof
the Jews’narrow belief that Messiasbelongedto them only, and is already
beginning to contemplate the possibility of a transference of the kingdom of
God to the outlying Gentiles. ‘God having raised up His Son’-that expression
has no reference, as it might at first seem, to the fact of the Resurrection;but
is employed in the same sense as, and indeed looks back to, previous words.
For he had just quoted Moses’declaration, ‘A prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you from your brethren.’ So it is Christ’s equipment and
appointment for His office, and not His Resurrection, which is spokenabout
here. ‘His Son Jesus’-the RevisedVersion more accuratelytranslates ‘His

Servant Jesus.’ I shall have a word or two to say about that translation
presently, but in the meantime I simply note the fact.
With this slight explanation let us now turn to two or three of the aspects of
the words before us.
I. First, I note the extraordinary transformation which they indicate in the
speaker.
I have already referred to his cowardicea very short time before. That
transformation from a cowardto a hero he shared in common with his
brethren. On one page we read, ‘They all forsook Him and fled.’ We turn over
half a dozen leaves and we read: ‘They departed from the council, rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.’ What did that?
Then there is another transformation no less swift, sudden, and inexplicable,
excepton one hypothesis. All through Christ’s life the disciples had been
singularly slow to apprehend the highest aspects ofHis teachings, and they
had clung with a strange obstinacyto their narrow Pharisaic and Jewish
notions of the Messiahas coming to establisha temporal dominion, in which
Israelwas to ride upon the necks ofthe subject nations. And now, all at once,
this Apostle, and his fellows with him, have stepped from these puerile and
narrow ideas out into this large place, that he and they recognise thatthe Jew
had no exclusive possessionofMessiah’s blessings, and that these blessings
consistedin no external kingdom, but lay mainly and primarily in His
‘turning every one of you from your iniquities.’ At one time the Apostles stood
upon a gross, low, carnallevel, and in a few weeks theywere, at all events,
feeling their wayto, and to a large extent had possessionof, the most spiritual
and lofty aspects ofChrist’s mission. What did that?

Something had come in betweenwhich wrought more, in a short space, than
all the three years of Christ’s teaching and companionship had done for them.
What was it? Why did they not continue in the mood which two of them are
reported to have been in, after the Crucifixion, when they said-’It is all up! we
trusted that this had been He,’ but the force of circumstances has shivered the
confidence into fragments, and there is no such hope left for us any longer.
What brought them out of that Slough of Despond?
I would put it to any fair-minded man whether the psychological facts of this
sudden maturing of these childish minds, and their sudden change from
slinking cowards into heroes who did not blanch before the torture and the
scaffold, are accountable, if you strike out the Resurrection, the Ascension,
and Pentecost? It seems to me that, for the sake ofavoiding a miracle, the
disbelievers in the Resurrectionacceptan impossibility, and tie themselves to
an intellectual absurdity. And I for one would rather believe in a miracle than
believe in an uncaused change, in which the Apostles take exactly the opposite
course from that which they necessarilymust have taken, if there had not
been the facts that the New Testamentasserts thatthere were, Christ’s rising
againfrom the dead, and Ascension.
Why did not the Church share the fate of John’s disciples, who scatteredlike
sheepwithout a shepherd when Herod chopped off their master’s head? Why
did not the Church share the fate of that abortive rising, of which we know
that when Theudas, its leader, was slain, ‘all, as many as believed on him,
came to nought.’ Why did these men actin exactly the opposite way? I take it
that, as you cannotaccountfor Christ except on the hypothesis that He is the
Son of the Highest, you cannotaccountfor the continuance of the Christian
Church for a week after the Crucifixion, excepton the hypothesis that the
men who composedit were witnesses ofHis Resurrection, andsaw Him
floating upwards and receivedinto the Shechinah cloud and lost to their sight.
Peter’s change, witnessedby the words of my text-these bold and clear-sighted
words-seems to me to be a perfectmonstrosity, and incapable of explication,

unless he saw the risen Lord, beheld the ascendedChrist, was touchedwith
the fiery Spirit descending on Pentecost, andso ‘out of weaknesswas made
strong,’and from a babe sprang to the stature of a man in Christ.
II. Look at these words as setting forth a remarkable view of Christ.
I have already referred to the factthat the word rendered ‘son’ ought rather
to be rendered ‘servant.’ It literally means ‘child’ or ‘boy,’ and appears to
have been used familiarly, just in the same fashion as we use the same
expression‘boy,’ or its equivalent ‘maid,’ as a more gentle designationfor a
servant. Thus the kindly centurion, when he would bespeak our Lord’s care
for his menial, calls him his ‘boy’; and our Bible there translates rightly
‘servant.’
Again, the designationis that which is continually employed in the Greek
translation of the Old Testamentas the equivalent for the well-known
prophetic phrase ‘the Servant of Jehovah,’which, as you will remember, is
characteristic ofthe secondportion of the prophecies of Isaiah. And
consequentlywe find that, in a quotation of Isaiah’s prophecy in the Gospelof
Matthew, the very phrase of our text is there employed: ‘Behold My Servant
whom I uphold!’
Now, it seems as if this designationof our Lord as God’s Servant was very
familiar to Peter’s thoughts at this stage ofthe development of Christian
doctrine. Forwe find the name employed twice in this discourse-inthe
thirteenth verse, ‘the God of our Fathers hath glorified His ServantJesus,’
and againin my text. We also find it twice in the next chapter, where Peter,
offering up a prayer amongsthis brethren, speaks of‘Thy Holy Child Jesus,’
and prays ‘that signs and wonders may be done through the name’ of that
‘Holy Child.’ So, then, I think we may fairly take it that, at the time in

question, this thought of Jesus as the ‘Servant of the Lord’ had come with
especial force to the primitive Church. And the fact that the designationnever
occurs againin the New Testamentseems to show that they passedon from it
into a deeperperception than even it attests of who and what this Jesus was in
relation to God.
But, at all events, we have in our text the Apostle looking back to that dim,
mysterious Figure which rises up with shadowylineaments out of the great
prophecy of ‘Isaiah,’and thrilling with awe and wonder, as he sees,bit by bit,
in the Face painted on the prophetic canvas, the likeness ofthe Face into
which he had lookedfor three blessedyears, that now began to tell him more
than they had done whilst their moments were passing.
‘The Servant of the Lord’-that means, first of all, that Christ, in all which He
does, meeklyand obediently executes the Father’s will. As He Himself said, ‘I
come not to do Mine ownwill, but the will of Him that sent Me.’But it carries
us further than that, to a point about which I would like to say one word now;
and that is, the clearrecognitionthat the very centre of Jewishprophecy is the
revelation of the personality of the Christ. Now, it seems to me that present
tendencies, discussions aboutthe nature and limits of inspiration,
investigations which, in many directions, are to be welcomedand are fruitful
as to the manner of origin of the books of the Old Testament, and as to their
collectioninto a Canon and a whole-thatall this new light has a
counterbalancing disadvantage, in that it tends somewhatto obscure in men’s
minds the greatcentral truth about the revelationof God in Israel-viz. that it
was all progressive, and that its goaland end was Jesus Christ. ‘The testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,’ and howevermuch we may have to learn-
and I have no doubt that we have a greatdeal to learn, about the composition,
the structure, the authorship, the date of these ancient books-Itake leave to
say that the unlearned reader, who recognises thatthey all converge on Jesus
Christ, has hold of the clue of the labyrinth, and has come nearerto the
marrow of the books than the most learned investigators, who see allmanner

of things besides in them, and do not see that ‘they that went before cried,
saying, Hosanna! Blessedbe He that cometh in the name of the Lord!’
And so I venture to commend to you, brethren-not as a barrier againstany
reverent investigation, not as stopping any careful study-this as the central
truth concerning the ancientrevelation, that it had, for its chief business, to
proclaim the coming of the Servant of Jehovah, Jesus the Christ.
III. And now, lastly, look at these words as setting forth the true centre of
Christ’s work.
‘He has sent Him to bless you in turning awayevery one of you from his
iniquities.’ I have already spokenabout the gross, narrow, carnal
apprehensions of Messiah’s work whichcleavedto the disciples during all our
Lord’s life here, and which disturbed even the sanctity of the upper chamber
at that last meal, with squabbles about precedence which had an eye to places
in the court of the MessiahwhenHe assumedHis throne. But here Peterhas
shakenhimself clear of all these, and has graspedthe thought that, whatever
derivative and secondaryblessings ofan external and visible sort may, and
must, come in Messiah’s train, the blessing which He brings is of a purely
spiritual and inward character, andconsists in turning away single souls from
their love and practice of evil. That is Christ’s true work.
The Apostle does not enlarge as to how it is done. We know how it is done.
Jesus turns away men from sin because, by the magnetismof His love, and the
attractive raying out of influence from His Cross, He turns them to Himself.
He turns us from our iniquities by the expulsive power of a new affection,
which, coming into our hearts like a greatriver into some foul Augean stable,
sweeps outon its waters all the filth that no broom can ever clearout in detail.

He turns men from their iniquities by His gift of a new life, kindred with that
from which it is derived.
There is an old superstition that lightning turned whatever it struck towards
the point from which the flash came, so that a tree with its thousand leaves
had eachof them pointed to that quarter in the heavens where the blaze had
been.
And so Christ, when He flings out the beneficentflash that slays only our evil,
and vitalises ourselves, turns us to Him, and awayfrom our transgressions.
‘Turn us, O Christ, and we shall be turned.’
Ah, brethren! that is the blessing that we need most, for ‘iniquities’ are
universal; and so long as man is bound to his sin it will embitter all
sweetnesses, andneutralise every blessing. It is not culture, valuable as that is
in many ways, that will avail to stanch man’s deepestwounds. It is not a new
socialorder that will still the discontent and the misery of humanity. You may
adopt collective economic and socialarrangements, anddivide property out as
it pleases you. But as long as man continues selfishhe will continue sinful, and
as long as he continues sinful any socialorder will be pregnant with sorrow,
‘and when it is finished it will bring forth death.’ You have to go deeper down
than all that, down as deep as this Apostle goes in this sermon of his, and
recognise thatChrist’s prime blessing is the turning of men from their
iniquities, and that only after that has been done will other goodcome.
How shallow, by the side of that conception, do modern notions of Jesus as the
greatsocialReformerlook!These are true, but they want their basis, and
their basis lies only here, that He is the Redeemerof individuals from their
sins. There were people in Christ’s lifetime who were all untouched by His
teachings, but when they found that He gave bread miraculously they said,

‘This is of a truth the Prophet! That’s the prophet for my money; the Man
that can make bread, and secure materialwell-being.’ Have not certain
modern views of Christ’s work and mission a gooddeal in common with these
vulgar old Jews-viewswhichregard Him mainly as contributing to the
material good, the socialand economicalwell-being of the world?
Now, I believe that He does that. And I believe that Christ’s principles are
going to revolutionise societyas it exists at present. But I am sure that we are
on a false scentif we attempt to preach consequences withoutproclaiming
their antecedents, and that such preaching will end, as all such attempts have
ended, in confusion and disappointment.
They used to talk about Jesus Christ, in the first FrenchRevolution, as ‘the
GoodSansculotte.’Perfectlytrue! But as the basis of that, and of all
representations ofHim, that will have poweron the diseasesofthe
community, we have to preach Him as the Saviour of the individual from his
sin.
And so, brethren, has He savedyou? Do you begin your notions of Jesus
Christ where His work begins? Do you feelthat what you want most is neither
culture nor any superficial and external changes, but something that will deal
with the deep, indwelling, rooted, obstinate self-regardwhich is the centre of
all sin? And have you gone alone to Him as a sinful man? As the Apostle here
suggests, JesusChristdoes not save communities. The doctorhas his patients
into the consulting-room one by one. There is no applying of Christ’s benefits
to men in batches, by platoons and regiments, as Clovis baptized his Franks;
but you have to go, every one of you, through the turnstile singly, and alone to
confess, andalone to be absolved, and alone to be turned, from your iniquity.

If I might venture to alter the position of words in my text, I would lay them,
so modified, on the hearts of all my friends whom my words may reachnow,
and say, ‘Unto you-unto thee, God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sentHim
to bless you, first in turning awayevery one of you from his iniquities.’
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
3:22-26 Here is a powerful address to warn the Jews ofthe dreadful
consequencesoftheir unbelief, in the very words of Moses,their favourite
prophet, out of pretended zeal for whom they were ready to reject
Christianity, and to try to destroyit. Christ came into the world to bring a
blessing with him. And he sent his Spirit to be the great blessing. Christ came
to bless us, by turning us from our iniquities, and saving us from our sins. We,
by nature cleave to sin; the designof Divine grace is to turn us from it, that we
may not only forsake, but hate it. Let none think that they can be happy by
continuing in sin, when God declares that the blessing is in being turned from
all iniquity. Let none think that they understand or believe the gospel, who
only seek deliverance from the punishment of sin, but do not expecthappiness
in being delivered from sin itself. And let none expect to be turned from their
sin, except by believing in, and receiving Christ the Son of God, as their
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Unto you first - To you who are Jews. This was the direction, that the gospel
should be first preachedto the Jews, beginning at Jerusalem, Luke 24:47.
Jesus himself also confined his ministry entirely to the Jews.
Having raisedup - This expressiondoes not refer to his having raised him
from the dead, but is used in the same sense as in Acts 3:22, where God
promised that he would raise up a prophet, and send him to teachthe people.
Petermeans that Godhad appointed his Son Jesus, orhad commissioned him
to go and preach to the people to turn them awayfrom their sins.
To bless you - To make you happy; to fulfill the promise made to Abraham.

In turning away- That is, by his preaching, example, death, etc. The highest
blessing that canbe conferredupon people is to be turned from sin. Sin is the
source of all woes, and if people are turned from that, they will be happy.
Christ blessesno one in sin, or while loving sin, but by turning them from sin.
This was the object which he had in view in coming, Isaiah 59:20;Matthew
1:21. The design of Peterin these remarks was to show them that the Messiah
had come, and that now they might look for happiness, pardon, and mercy
through him. As the Jews might, so may all; and as Jesus, while living, sought
to turn awaypeople from their sins, so he does still, and still designs to bless
all nations by the gospelwhich he had himself preached, and to establish
which he died. All may therefore come and be blessed;and all may rejoice in
the prospectthat these blessings will yet be bestowedon all the kindreds of the
earth. May the happy day sooncome!
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
26. God, having raised up—not from the dead, but having provided,
prepared, and given.
his SonJesus—"His ServantJesus"(see on[1945]Ac 3:13).
sent him to bless you—literally, "sentHim blessing you," as if laden with
blessing.
in turning awayevery one of you from his iniquities—that is, "Hitherto we
have all been looking too much for a Messiahwho should shed outward
blessings upon the nation generally, and through it upon the world. But we
have learned other things, and now announce to you that the greatblessing
with which Messiahhas come laden is the turning awayof every one of you
from his iniquities." With what divine skill does the apostle, founding on
resistless facts,here drive home to the conscienceofhis auditors their guilt in

crucifying the Lord of Glory; then soothe their awakenedminds by
assurancesofforgiveness onturning to the Lord, and a glorious future as soon
as this shall come to pass, to terminate with the PersonalReturn of Christ
from the heavens whither He has ascended;ending all with warnings, from
their own Scriptures, to submit to Him if they would not perish, and calls to
receive from Him the blessings of salvation.
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Unto you first; the Jews and inhabitants of Jerusalem, who are the lostsheep
of the house of Israel. St. Peterdid not yet know, that the Gentiles should be
called, until he was taught it by the vision, Acts 10:1-48;and though our
Saviour had told the apostles that they should be his witnesses unto the
uttermost part of the earth, Acts 1:8, they understood it only of those of their
own nation, scatteredor dispersedabroad, 1 Peter 1:1.
Raisedup his son, Jesus;which word does not only refer to the resurrectionof
Christ, but to his being constituted and appointed to be a Prince and a
Saviour; thus it is said, a greatprophet is risen up amongstus, Luke 7:16;
and, God hath, raisedup a horn of salvation, Luke 1:69. Howsoever, itis by
virtue of Christ’s being raisedfrom the dead, and carried into his kingdom,
that we are blessed. In turning away everyone of you from his iniquities; this
is the greatestblessing indeed;hence our Saviour hath his name imposed by
God on him, Matthew 1:21, and was calledJesus, because he saves his people
from their sins; and without this being savedfrom our sins, nothing can be a
blessing to us, Isaiah 3:11; and, There is no peace, saithmy God, to the
wicked, Isaiah57:21. Add to this, that if any be turned from their iniquities, it
is through the blessing of God in Christ.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Unto you first, God having raisedhis Son Jesus,.... Whichmay be understood,
either of the incarnation of Christ, and his exhibition in the flesh; which is
sometimes expressedby raising him up, and is no other than the mission, or

manifestation of him in human nature, as in Luke 1:69. Or of the resurrection
of him from the dead, and the exaltationof him at the right hand of God:
sent him to bless you; in person, according to the former sense;for he was
indeed sentonly to the people of Israel, and to them he preached; many of
whom were blessedwith converting grace under his ministry; but according
to the latter sense, and which seems mostagreeable, he was sent in the
ministry of the word, and came by his Spirit, first to the Jews, among whom
the Gospelwas first preachedfor a while, and was blessedto the conversionof
many thousands among them, both in Judea, and in the nations of the world,
where they were dispersed:
in turning awayeveryone of you from his iniquities; in this the blessing lay,
and is rightly in our version ascribedto Christ, and to the power of his grace,
in the ministration of the Gospeland not to themselves, as in many other
versions;as the Syriac version, "if ye convert yourselves, and turn from your
evils"; making it both their ownact, and the condition of their being blessed;
and the Arabic version likewise, "sothat everyone of you departs from his
wickedness";but that work is Christ's, and this is the blessing of grace he
himself bestows, andis a fruit of redemption by his blood, Titus 2:14.
Geneva Study Bible
Unto you first God, having {k} raisedup his Son Jesus, senthim to bless you,
in turning awayevery one of you from his iniquities.
(k) Given to the world, or raisedfrom the dead, and advancedto his kingdom.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary

Acts 3:26. Progressofthe discourse:“This bestowal—inaccordancewith
God’s covenant-arrangements—ofsalvationon all nations of the earth
through the Messiahhas commencedwith you,” to you first has God sent, etc.
πρῶτον] soonerthan to all other nations. “Praevium indicium de vocatione
gentium,” Bengel. Romans 1:16;Romans 11:11. On this intimation of the
universality of the Messianic salvationOlshausenobserves, thatthe apostle,
who at a later period rose with such difficulty to this idea (ch. 10), was
doubtless, in the first moments of his ministry, full of the Spirit, raisedabove
himself, and in this elevationhad glimpses to which he was still, as regards his
generaldevelopment, a stranger. But this is incorrect: Petersharedthe views
of his people, that the non-Jewishnations would be made partakers in the
blessings ofthe Messiahby acceptance ofthe Jewishtheocracy. He thus still
expectedat this time the blessing of the Gentiles through the Messiahto take
place in the way of their passing through Mosaism. “Caputet summa rei in
adventu Messiaein eo continetur, quod omnes omnino populi adorent Jovam
illumque colant unanimiter,” Mikrae Kodesch, f. 108. 1. “Gentes non traditae
snnt Israeliin hoc saeculo, attradentur in diebus Messiae,” Berish. rab. f. 28.
2. See alreadyIsaiah 2:2 f., Isaiah 60:3 ff.
ἀναστήσας]causing His servant to appear (the aoristparticiple synchronous
with ἀπέστ.). This view of ἀναστ. is required by Acts 3:22. Incorrectly,
therefore, Luther, Beza, Heumann, and Barkey:after He has raised Him from
the dead.
εὐλοῦντα ὑμᾶς]blessing you. The correlate ofἐνευλογ., Acts 3:25. This
efficacyof the Sent One procuring salvationthrough His redeeming work is
continuous.

ἐν τῷ ἀποστρέφειν]in the turning away, i.e. when ye turn from your iniquities
(see on Romans 1:29), consequentlydenoting that by which the εὐλογεῖνmust
be accompaniedon the part of the recipients (comp. Acts 4:30)—the moral
relation which must necessarilybe thereby brought about. We may add, that
here the intransitive meaning of ἀποστρέφειν,[153]and not the transitive,
which Piscator, Calvin, Hammond, Wetstein, Bengel, Morus, Heinrichs adopt
(when He turns away), is required by the summons containedin Acts 3:19.
The issue to which Acts 3:25-26 were meant to induce the hearers—namely,
that they should now believingly apprehend and appropriate the Messianic
salvationannounced beforehand to them by God and assuredby covenant,
and indeed actually in the mission of the Messiahofferedto them first before
all others—was alreadyexpressedsufficiently in Acts 3:19, and is now again
at the close in Acts 3:26, and that with a sufficiently successfulresult (Acts
4:4); and therefore the hypothesis that the discourse was interrupted while
still unfinished by the arrival of the priests, etc. (Acts 4:1), is unnecessary.
[153]So only here in the N. T.; but see Xen. Hist. iii. 4. 12;Genesis 18:33, al.;
Sir 8:5; Sir 17:21;Bar 2:33; Sauppe, ad Xen. de re eq. 12. 13; Krüger, § lii. 2.
5.
Expositor's Greek Testament
Acts 3:26. ὑμῖν πρῶτον—ὑμῖν:againemphatic. In the words of St. Peter we
may againnote his agreementwith St. Paul, Acts 13:46, Romans 1:16 (Acts
10:11), although no doubt St. Petershared the views of his nation in so far
that Gentiles could only participate in the blessings ofthe Messianic kingdom
through acceptanceofJudaism.—ἀναστήσας, cf. Acts 3:22, τὸνπαῖδα, “his
servant,” R.V., see above on Acts 3:13. ἀπέστειλεν also shows that ἀνασ. here
refers not to the Resurrectionbut to the Incarnation.—εὐλογοῦντα:as in the
act of blessing, presentparticiple; the present participle expressing that the
Christ is still continuing His work of blessing on repentance, but see also
Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses, p. 171.—ἐντῷ: this use of ἐν governing the

dative with the infinitive is most commonly temporal, but it is used to express
other relations, such as manner, means, as here (cf. Acts 4:30, where the
attempt to give a temporal sense is very far-fetched, Hackett, in loco);see
Burton, u. s., p. 162, and Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 232. This formula of
ἐν with the dative of the article and the infinitive is very common in St. Luke,
both in his Gospeland in the Acts, and is characteristicofhim as compared
with the number of times the same formula is used by other writers in the
N.T., Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, p. 37, and also Zeller, of the Apostles,
ii., p. 196, ., also in the LXX the same constructionis found, cf. Genesis 19:16;
Genesis 34:15, etc.—ἀποστρέφειν:probably intransitive (Blass, Grimm, and
so often in LXX, although the English A. and R.V. may be understood in
either sense). Vulgate renders “ut convertatse unusquisque,” but the use of
the verb elsewherein Luke 23:14 (cf. also Romans 11:26, Isaiah59:20)makes
for the transitive sense (so Weiss, in loco). The argument from Acts 3:19 (as
Alford points out) does not decide the matter either way (see also
Holtzmann).—πονηριῶν, cf. Luke 11:39, and adjective πονηρός frequent both
in the Gospeland in the Acts; in LXX both words are very common. The
word may denote miseries as well as iniquities, as Bengelnotes, but the latter
sense is demanded by the context. πρῶτον according to Jüngst does not mark
the factthat the Jews were to be converted first and the Gentiles afterwards,
but as belonging to the whole clause, andas referring to the first and past
sending of Jesus in contrastto the second(Acts 3:20) and future sending in
glory. But to support this view Jüngst has no hesitation in regarding 25b as an
interpolation, and so nothing is left but a reference to the διαθήκη ofGod with
the fathers, i.e., circumcision, which is quite in place before a Jewishaudience.
St. Peter’s Discourses.—More recentGerman criticism has departed far from
the standpoint of the early Tübrigen school, who could only see in these
discourses the free compositionof a later age, whilst Dr. McGiffert, in spite of
his denial of the Lucan authorship of Acts, inclines to the belief that the
discourses in question representan early type of Christian teaching, derived
from primitive documents, and that they breathe the spirit of St. Peterand of
primitive JewishChristianity. Feine sees in the contents of the addresses a
proof that we have in them a truthful recordof the primitive Apostolic

teaching. Just the very points which were of central interest in this early
period of the Church’s life are those emphasisedhere, e.g., the proof that
Jesus ofNazareth, the Crucified One, is the Messiah, a proof attestedby His
Resurrection, the appealto Israel, the chosenpeople, to repent for the
remissionof sins in His name. Nor is there anything againstthe speechesin
the factof their similarity; in their first and early preaching, as Feine urges,
the Apostles’thoughts would naturally move in the same circle, they would
recur againand again to the same facts, and their addresses couldscarcelybe
otherwise than similar. Moreoverwe have an appeal to the facts of the life of
Jesus as to things well known in the immediate past: “Jesus ofNazareth” had
been working in the midst of them, and Peter’s hearers were witnesseswith
him of His signs and wonders, “as ye yourselves know,” Acts 2:23; we become
conscious in such words and in their context of all the moral indignation and
the deep pain of the Apostles at the crucifixion of their Master, just as in Acts
3:13 we seemto listen to another personalreminiscence of the Passionhistory
(see Beyschlag,Neutest. Theol.,i., pp. 304, 305;Scharfe, Die Petrinische
Strömung, 2 c., pp. 184, 185).
The fact that no reference is made to, or at all events that no stress is laid
upon, the doctrinal significance ofthe death of Christ, as by St. Paul, is again
an intimation that we are dealing with the earliestdays of Apostolic
teaching—the death of the Cross was in itself the factof all others which was
the insuperable offence to the Jew, and it could not help him to proclaim that
Christ died for his sins if he had no belief in Jesus as the Christ. The first and
necessarystepwas to prove to the Jew that the suffering of the Messiahwas in
accordancewith the counsels of God and with the voices of the prophets
(Lechler, Das Apostolische Zeitalter, pp. 230, 231). Butthe historicalfact
accepted, its inner and spiritual significance would be imparted, and there
was nothing strange in the fact that disciples who had themselves found it so
difficult to overcome their repugnance to the mention of their Master’s
sufferings, should first direct their main efforts to remove the like prejudice
from the minds of their countrymen. But we cannot adduce from this method
that the Apostles had never heard such words as those of Christ (Matthew
20:28, Mark 10:45, cf. 1 Peter1:18) (cf. the striking passagein Beyschlag, u.

s., pp. 306, 307), or that they were entirely ignorant of the atoning significance
of His Death. St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:1-3, speaks ofthe tradition which he
had received, a tradition in which he was at one with the Twelve, Acts 3:11,
viz., that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (Feine, Die
vorkanonische Ueberlieferung des Lukas; see p. 230).
When we pass to the considerationofSt. Peter’s Christology, we againsee
how he starts from the actual experience ofhis hearers before him: “Jesus of
Nazareth, a man,” etc.—plainly and fearlesslySt. Peteremphasises the
manhood of his Lord—the title which is never found in any of the Epistles
leads us back to the Passionand the Cross, to the early records of the
Saviour’s life on earth, Acts 24:9; Acts 22:8. And yet the Crucified Nazarene
was by a startling paradox the Prince or Author of Life (see note on ἀρχηγός);
by a divine law which the Jews couldnot discern He could not save Himself—
and yet—anotherparadox—there was no other Name given amongstmen
whereby they must be saved.
St. Paul could write of Him, Who took upon Him the form of a servant, Who
humbled Himself, and became obedient to the death of the Cross, Php 2:6;
and St. Peter, in one familiar word, which so far as we know St. Paul never
used, brings before his hearers the same sublime picture of obedience,
humility, death and glory; Jesus is the ideal, the glorified “Servant” ofGod
(see note on Acts 3:13). But almost in the same breath St. Peterspeaks ofthe
Servant as the Holy and Righteous One, Acts 3:14; holy, in that He was
consecratedto the service of Jehovah(ἅγιος, Acts 4:27; Acts 4:30, see note,
and Acts 2:27); righteous, in that He was also the impersonation of
righteousness, a righteousnesswhichthe Law had proclaimed, and which
Prophets and Kings had desired to see, but had not seen(Isaiah 53:11). But
whilst we note these titles, steepedeachand all of them in O.T. imagery, whilst
we may see in them the germs of the later and the deeper theologyof St. Paul
and St. John (see Dr. Lock, “Christologyofthe EarlierChapters of the Acts,”
Expositor, iv. (fourth series), p. 178 ff.), they carry us far beyond the

conceptionof a mere humanitarian Christ. It is not only that Jesus of
Nazarethis set before us as “the very soul and end of JewishProphecy,” as
Himself the Prophet to whom the true Israelwould hearken, but that He is
associatedby St. Petereven in his earliestutterances, as none other is
associated, withJehovahin His Majestyin the work of salvation, Acts 2:34;
the salvationwhich was for all who calledupon Jehovah’s Name, Acts 2:21,
was also for all in the Name, in the power of Jesus Christ, Acts 4:12 (see notes,
l. c, and cf. the force of the expressionἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸ ὄνομα in 1 Corinthians
1:2, Schmid, Biblische Theologie, p. 407);the Spirit which Joelhad foretold
would be poured forth by Jehovahhad been poured forth by Jesus raisedto
the right hand of God, Acts 2:18; Acts 2:33 (see further notes in chap. Acts
10:36;Acts 10:42-43).
One other matter must be briefly noticed—the correspondence inthought and
word betweenthe St. Peterof the early chapters of the Acts and the St. Peter
of the First Epistle which bears his name. A few points may be selected. St.
Peterhad spokenof Christ as the Prince of Life; quite in harmony with this is
the thought expressedin 1 Peter1:3, of Christians as “begottenagain” by the
resurrectionof Jesus Christ from the dead. St. Peter had spokenof Christ as
the Holy and Righteous One, so in the First Epistle he sets forth this aspectof
Christ’s peculiar dignity, His sinlessness. As in Acts, so also in 1 Pet. the
thought of the sufferings of Christ is prominent, but also that of the glory
which should follow, chap. 1, Acts 3:11. As in Acts, so also in 1 Pet. these
sufferings are described as undeserved, but also as foreordained by God and
in accordancewith the voices of the Prophets, 1 Peter1:11; 1 Peter2:22-25.
As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. it is the specialtask of the Apostles to be witnessesof
the sufferings and also of the resurrection of Christ, chap. Acts 5:1. As in
Acts, so in 1 Pet. we have the clearesttestimony to the δόξα of Christ, 1 Peter
1:21; 1 Peter4:11. As in Acts stress is laid not only upon the facts of the life of
Christ, but also upon His teaching, Acts 10:34 ff., so also in 1 Pet., while
allusions are made to the scenes ofour Lord’s Passionwith all the force of an
eye-witness, we have stress laid upon the word of Christ, the Gospelor
teaching, Acts 1:12; Acts 1:23; Acts 1:25, Acts 2:2; Acts 2:8, Acts 3:19, Acts
4:6. As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. we have a reference to the agencyof Christ in the

realm of the dead, 1 Peter3:19; 1 Peter4:6. As in Acts, Acts 10:42, so in 1 Pet.
Christ is Himself the judge of quick and dead, Acts 4:6, or in His unity with
the Fathershares with Him that divine prerogative, cf. Acts 1:17. As in Acts,
so in 1 Pet. the communication of the Holy Spirit is speciallyattributed to the
exalted Christ, cf. Acts 2:33, 1 Peter1:11-12. As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. Christ is
the living corner-stone on which God’s spiritual house is built, Acts 4:12 and 1
Peter2:4-10. As in Acts, so in 1 Pet. not only the details but the whole scope of
salvationis regarded in the light and as a fulfilment of O.T. prophecy, cf. Acts
3:18-25, 1 Peter 2:22-23;1 Peter1:10-12. But this correspondenceextends to
words, amongstwhich we may note πρόγνωσις, Acts 2:23, 1 Peter1:2, a word
found nowhere else in the N.T., and used in eachpassagein the same sense;
ἀπροσωπολήμπτως, 1 Peter1:17, and only here in N.T., but cf. Acts 10:34,
οὐκ ἐστιν προσωπολήμπτης. ξύλονtwice used by St. Peterin Acts 5:30; Acts
10:39 (once by St. Paul), and again in 1 Peter2:24; ἀθέμιτος only in the
Cornelius history, Acts 10:28, by St. Peter, and in 1 Peter4:3; μάρτυς with the
genitive of that to which testimony is rendered, most frequently in N.T. used
by St. Peter, cf. Acts 1:22; Acts 6:13; Acts 10:39, and 1 Peter5:1; and further,
in Acts 4:11 = 1 Peter 2:7, Acts 10:42 = 1 Peter4:5, the verbal correspondence
is very close.
See on the whole subject Nösgen, Apostelgeschichte, p. 48; Lechler, Das Apost.
Zeitalter, p. 428 ff.; Scharfe, Die Petrinische Strömung, 2 c., p. 122 ff.; Lumby,
Expositor, iv. (first series), pp. 118, 123;and also Schmid, Biblische Theologie,
p. 389 ff. On the striking connectionbetweenthe Didache 1, and the language
of St. Peter’s sermons, and the phraseologyofthe early chapters of Acts, see
Gore, Church and the Ministry, p. 416.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
26. Unto you first] That the Jews might first receive the blessing themselves,
and then spreadit abroad.

God, having raised up] Not spokenhere of the resurrection of Jesus, but
recalling the promise of Moses (Acts 3:22) that a prophet should be raised up
and sent unto the people.
his SonJesus]his Servant (as Acts 3:13). The best authorities omit Jesus.
sent him to bless you] by the times of refreshing alluded to Acts 3:19. The way
and means to which blessing is to be by the repentance and turning againto
which the Apostle has been exhorting them.
Bengel's Gnomen
Acts 3:26. πρῶτον, first) A previous intimation as to the call of the Gentiles.—
ἀναστήσας, having raisedup) of the seedof Abraham.—παῖδα) Acts 3:13 [His
servant, not His Son, as Engl. Vers.]—εὐλογοῦντα, blessing)This is deduced
from Acts 3:25.—ἐν τῷ ἀποστρέφειν)Active: in turning away. Christ is He
who turns awayboth us from wickedness, andungodliness from us: Romans
11:26, “There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away
ungodliness from Jacob.” It is a thing not to be done by human strength.—
πονηριῶν) wickednesses, iniquities, whereby the blessing is impeded. Πονηρία
denotes both wickednessand misery.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 26. - Servant for SonJesus, A.V. and T.R.;your for his, A.V. Unto you
first. In virtue of the covenant, the first offer of salvationwas made to the
Jews (see Acts 1:8; Acts 13:26, 46; Luke 24:47; Romans 2:10, etc.; comp.
Matthew 15:24). His Servant (as in ver. 13). As regards the phrase, "having
raisedup," howevernatural it is at first sight to understand it of the raising
from the dead, the tenses make it impossible to do so. Nor could it be said that
God sent Jesus to bless them after his resurrection. We must, therefore,
understand ἀναστήσας as to be equivalent to ἐξαγείρας, and to mean "having
appointed," setup, raised up (as the English word is used, Luke 1:69; Romans
9:17). In this sense Godraisedup his Servant by the incarnation, birth,

anointing, and mission to be the Savior. To bless you; to fulfill to you the
blessing promised to Abraham's seed. In turning away, etc., deliverance from
sin being the chief blessing which Christ bestows upon his people (so Acts
5:31, repentance is spokenofas Christ's greatgift to Israel). So closedthe
secondgreatapostolic sermon.
Vincent's Word Studies
His SonJesus
The best texts omit Jesus. Renderservantfor son, and see on Acts 3:13.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRUCE HURT MD
Acts 3:26 "Foryou first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you
by turning every one of you from your wickedways."
KJV Acts 3:26 Unto you first God, having raisedup his Son Jesus, senthim to
bless you, in turning awayevery one of you from his iniquities.
For you first Acts 1:8; 13:26,32,33,46,47;18:4-6; 26:20;28:23-28;Mt 10:5,6;
Luke 24:47; Ro 2:9,10;Rev 7:4-9
God raisedup His Servant Acts 3:15,22

sent Him to bless you Acts 3:20,25;Ps 67:6,7;72:17;Luke 2:10,11;Ro 15:29;
Gal 3:9-14;Eph 1:3; 1 Pe 1:3; 3:9
by turning every one of you from your wickedways Isa 59:20,21;Jer 32:38-
41; 33:8,9;Ezek 11:19,20;36:25-29;Mt 1:21; Eph 5:26,27;Titus 2:11-14;1
John 3:5-8; Jude 1:24
Acts 3 Resources -Multiple Sermons and Commentaries
THE SERVANT SENT
TO BLESS
For you first - Peterreminds them of their privileged position. The blessing
brought by God's (suffering) Servant although promised to all the families of
the earth, was given first to the Jews.
Robertsonon for you first - The Jews were first in privilege and it was
through the Jews thatthe Messiahwas to come for "allthe families of the
earth."
Thomas Constable - The gospelwent to the Jews before it went to the Gentiles
(cf. Matt. 10:5; Acts 13:46;Rom. 1:16) because the establishmentof Christ's
earthly kingdom depends on Israel's acceptanceofher Messiah(Matt. 23:39;
Rom. 11:26). Before Christ can reign on the earth, Israelmust repent (Zech.
12:10-14). (Acts 3 Commentary)
Gilbrant - The blessing promised to all the families of the earth came first to
the people of Israel. What a privilege! Yet this was not favoritism on God's
part. It was their opportunity to receive the blessing by repenting and by
turning from their "iniquities" (their sins, their evil or malicious acts). (The
Complete Biblical Library – Acts)
God raisedup His Servant and sent Him to bless you - Peteruses Servant
(pais) which is the same descriptionof Messiahthathe used when describing
how they had delivered Him up and disownedHim in the presence of Pilate

(Acts 3:13+). The One they had delivered up to become a curse (Gal 3:13+),
would be the One Who would bless them. They should have been cursed but
instead are blessed. Is this not radical grace....totallyunmerited favor! This is
the same radicalgrace we have all receivedin Christ, in Whom there is grace
"piled upon" grace (Jn 1:16+).
Raisedup - see anistemi above in Acts 3:22+. In contextthis means God raised
up Jesus for His ministry. Obviously God also raisedHim from the dead but
that does not fit the context as well.
Sent - see apostello above in Acts 3:22+
Bless (presenttense = continually) (2127)(eulogeoeu= good+ lógos = word;
see cognateseulogetosand eulogia)means speak goodor well. When God
blesses men He grants them favor and confers happiness upon them.
By turning every one of you from your wickedways - The idea in this verse is
as causing someone to change from incorrect to correctbehavior. This of
course is not just self-will but is a Spirit-enabled supernatural act. Fallen man
will not (and cannot) by himself turn awayfrom the wickednessofhis own
fallen flesh, his own wickedheart, for he is enslaved by Sin which rules as
"King" in his heart. (Jn 8:34, Ro 6:16, cf Ro 6:11 and Ro 6:12-14)
Turning is epistrepho in Acts 3:19 and here the verb is apostrepho. In Acts
3:19 it is turning to and here it is turning awayfrom. In a sense the
combination of these two verbs gives us a description of repentance which is a
turning to God and a turning awayfrom sin. We see this illustrated in the
pagan, idol worshipping Gentiles in Thessalonia, Paulwriting

For they themselves report about us what kind of a receptionwe had with you
(FORMER IDOLATERS), andhow you turned to (cf EPISTREPHO)God
from (cf APOSTREPHO)idols to serve a living and true God (cf BRINGING
FORTHFRUIT IN KEEPING WITH REPENTANCE!), 10 and to wait for
His Sonfrom heaven, Whom He raisedfrom the dead, that is Jesus, who
rescues us from the wrath to come. (1 Thes 1:9-10+)
Turning (654)(apostrepho from apo = awayfrom, a marker of dissociation,
implying a rupture from a former associationand indicates separation,
departure, cessation, reversal + strepho = turn quite around, twist, reverse,
turn oneselfabout) means literally to turn back or away. To cause to turn
awayin a positive sense (active voice as in Acts 3:26) but also in a negative
sense (2 Ti 1:15, 2 Ti 4:4, Titus 1:14). The use of apostrepho in the warning
passagein Hebrews would be appropriate in the present context as Peter
warns the Jewishaudience that to turn awayfrom the Prophet (Jesus)will
bring utter destruction...
See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. Forif those did not
escape whenthey refusedhim who warned them on earth, much less will we
escape who turn away from (apostrepho)Him who warns from heaven. (Heb
12:25+).
Apostrepho is used in the Isaiah's prophecy in Isaiah59:20
“A Redeemer(Heb = goel/ga'al;Lxx = rhuomai) will come to Zion, And to
those who turn from (Lxx = apostrepho) transgressionin Jacob,” declaresthe
LORD.

Comment - Paul quotes the Septuagintversion of Isaiah 59:20 in Romans
11:26+ as he explains how "all Israelwill be saved" noting that “THE
DELIVERER (rhuomai) WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE
UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.”
MacArthur - The Messiah, the Suffering Servant (ED: "THE DELIVERER"),
will redeemZion and all faithful Israelites. This unalterable promise to the
nation was the basis for Paul's reassuranceofthe future salvation of Israel
(Ro 11:26, 27). (The MacArthur Study Bible)
ESV Study Bible note says "In Ro 11:26-27, Paulcombines this verse (Isaiah
59:20)(from the lxx) with Jer. 31:33+ (and perhaps Isa. 27:9) to describe his
hope for his ethnic kin....the salvationof the end-time generationof the Jewish
people in the future....The Deliverercoming from Zion probably refers to
Christ (cf. 1 Th 1:10+), suggesting that the Jews willbe savednear or at the
SecondComing." (ED: THE JEWS!) (Bolding added)
This verse will be fulfilled completely for the remnant of believing Jews when
Messiahreturns. Paul describes this future turning by the nation of Israel
using apostrepho in Romans 11.26+ writing that "all (ALL THAT BELIEVE)
Israelwill be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME
FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROMJACOB.”
Each(eachindividual) (1538)(hekastosfrom hékas = separate)everysingle
one, of eachone separately. The idea is that eachone is singled out. Turning
from wickedways would be individual by individual and clearly is the
supernatural work of the Spirit of Jesus.
Wickedways (4189)(poneria from poneros from pónos = labor, sorrow, pain
and and poneo = to be involved in work, labor) refers to depravity, to an evil
disposition, to badness or to an evil nature. Poneria is used in the NT only in
the moral and ethicalsense and refers to intentionally practicedill will.

Poneria is active malice. Poneria is malevolence, notonly doing evil, but being
evil. Ponēría means maliciousness andit is to be distinguished from kakía
which is simply the evil habit of mind, depravity, not necessarilybeing
expressedand affecting others. Poneria is used only 7x in the NT - Mt 22:18;
Mk 7:22; Lk 11:39; Acts 3:26; Ro 1:29; 1 Co 5:8; Eph 6:12.
NET Note on wickedways - For the translation of plural (poneria) as
"iniquities," see G. Harder, TDNT 6:565. The plural is important, since for
Luke turning to Jesus means turning awayfrom sins, not just the sin of
rejecting Jesus.
Surgeon- They were to have the first proclamationof the gospel;from among
them would be gatheredmany of the first converts. The preacherdid not
know immediately what result this sermonproduced; it was not like the
sermon preachedat Pentecost, forhe did know what happens after its
delivery. This is quite as gooda sermon every way, and we have every reason
to believe that as many were converted by it. The Spirit of God was with
Peter;yet even the Spirit of God, does not always work in the came way upon
men. You see, the apostles had no opportunity to have a talk with the people
afterwards, and to find out what had been done, as they had on the day of
Pentecost.
JIM BOMKAMP
VS 3:25-26 - “25 It is you who are the sons of the prophets, and of the
covenantwhich God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in
your seedall the families of the earth shall be blessed.'26 "Foryou first, God
raisedup His Servant, and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you

from your wickedways." (NASB)” - Peterreminds the people that they are
sons of the prophets and of the covenantthat God made with their fathers
9.1. In the last two verses of this chapter, Peterreminds the people of the
covenantto Abraham, and how that they are recipients of that covenant. If
they will receive the risen savior, Jesus Christ, then they will inherit the
covenantpromises made to Abraham.
9.2. Petertells this Jewishaudience that it was to them that the gospel
was first to be preached, as it was for them first that God raisedup His Son
from the dead. God’s purpose for them in hearing the gospelwas that eachof
them repent and turn away from their sinful, ‘wickedways’. Foras I said
earlier in this chapter, there can be no salvationif there is no repentance.
10. CONCLUSION: We see here in this secondsermonof Peterthat
the theme is “the resurrectionof Jesus from the dead”, and Petertells these
Jews in a very direct waythat they had murdered their Messiahand that they
must ‘repent’ if they are to find times of refreshing from the Lord and have
God send to them their Messiah. But, the question I have to ask you today is,
“What will you do now with Jesus in your life?”

10.1. Will you rejectHim completely from your life and have nothing to do
with Him?
10.2. Or, will you merely tolerate His existence and be content to just give
assentthat He exists?
10.3. Or, will you invite Him to your house but then give Him the keys to the
guesthouse and only invite Him into the main house if some crisis arises
which He might help in?
10.4. Or, will you invite Him to your house and give Him a key to every
room and invite him to share in all that goes onin your house? Will you make
Him Lord of your house?
10.4.1.This is what ‘true repentence’repentence is…
10.4.2. What will you do with this Jesus?

Jesus was sent to be a blessing

Jesus was sent to be a blessing

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Jesus was sent to be a blessing

Similar to Jesus was sent to be a blessing (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (17)

Jesus was sent to be a blessing