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Acts 3 & Christ’s Footstool
In another message in Act, Peter seems to say that the new is still to come.
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:19-21.
But does this “restitution of all things” occur in one event at the end of the world or in a process that begins at the second coming? “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” Acts 3:24. These days, not those, days are foretold. The restitution has already begun. God is not going one day in one act make Christ’s enemies his footstool; He has been and is making all Christ’s enemies a footstool for his feet now. Psalm 110. “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” Hebrews 10:12-13.
That still leaves open the questions, Was there a special transition time in the first century that proved the coronation of Christ? Does it distinguish that time as the last days of the old covenant and separate it from our time? Are those last days over?
Notice also that in the book of Acts, Peter, a Jew, and Paul, also a Jew, state their messages differently based on whether they’re speaking to a Gentile or a Jewish audience. It’s the same gospel message, except that with the Jewish audience, they almost always throw in the fact of the rejection of their Messiah by the Jews. That’ adds to their guilt, and it indicates an even more desperate need for repentance – to avoid the inevitable consequences of that rejection.
Then there’s the great man Stephen, the man who perhaps saw farther even than Peter and the Apostles and understood so clearly just what God was doing with his generation. I’ll write about Stephen next time. I look forward to that.