PT-3 Intro to Acts 3:19-26

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/11/2017 10:24 AM

My Worship Time                                                                      Focus:  PT-3 Intro to Acts 3:19-26

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Acts 3:19-26

            Message of the verses:  “19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21 whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. 22 "Moses said, ’THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you. 23 ’And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 “And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. 25 “It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ’AND IN YOUR SEED ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH SHALL BE BLESSED.’ 26 “For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways."”

            In our last SD which was written early this morning we looked at the first of several prompters that John MacArthur was making to show that God’s design for me is to repent, and we looked at the first one, “the knowledge of God’s revealed truth cause men to repent” which was about the Word of God.  Today we want to finish looking at the prompters and then give the outline of what we will be looking at in these remaining verses from Acts chapter three.

            “Second, God uses sorrow for sin to lead men to repentance.”  We want to look at 2 Corinthians 7:9-10:

“9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

I have to say that these two verses remind me of Judas as Paul writes “the sorrow of the world produces death,” and it also reminds me of Peter as Paul writes “For sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret.”  Judas felt remorse and not repentance as he felt bad for what he did, bad enough to kill himself, but did not get on his knees and agree with God that He had sinned in doing what He did to Christ. 

            “Third, God’s goodness and kindness are to motivate men to repentance.”  MacArthur writes “In Romans 2:4, Paul rebukes Israel for missing that point:  ‘Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?’  God, in common grace, blesses men with good things to enjoy.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:45 that “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.’  This common grace should lead people to repentance.”

Fourthly, a final motivation to repentance is fear of final judgment.  In a message that a Pastor from our church gave a few weeks ago when our senior Pastor was on vacation, he stated that the church is not talking much of the end times as they use to and that they should do so again.  One of the reasons we as believers should be talking about the end times is this very final motivation to repentance that John MacArthur talks about here.  If people don’t know that there is going to be a judgment they will not fear it.  Peter writes “9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”  These verses speak of the end of the world when God will be finished with the world and all He created in the universe.  The word in the Greek for elements means basic building blocks, and that speaks of the atoms.  Who or what holds the atoms together?  Believers realize that Jesus does, but there will come a day when they power of all the atoms will be loosed and the world and all the universe will burn up, be un-created.  Yes that is something to fear for sure.  How do we miss that?  We repent and ask Jesus Christ to be our Savior and our Lord and we will miss the destruction of planet earth and all the universe and will live with Christ in the New Jerusalem.

            MacArthur concludes “In the first part of his sermon Peter gave his hearers abundant evidence that Israel had reached the wrong conclusion about Jesus Christ.  Then he called on them to repent and reverse their verdict concerning Jesus Christ and place their faith in Him.  To help persuade them, he gives them promised results if they repent:  God will forgive their sin, the kingdom will come, Messiah will return, judgment will be avoided, and blessing will be realized.”

            We will begin to look at these topics in our next SD.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Repentance is not only critical in becoming a believer, but also it is critical as one walks as a believer.  See 1 John 1:9.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust as I ask the Spirit of God to search my heart each day that He will do so in order that I can repent of what He brings to my mind.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “The Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).

Today’s Bible question:  “What did Jesus teach regarding the mot in your neighbor’s eye?”

Answer in our next SD.

9/11/2017 10:54 AM