In Acts 3, Peter gives us an incredible description of Jesus from many angles.  He is the Rejected and Suffering Servant.  He is the Holy and Righteous One.  He is the Author of Life.  Today, I want to briefly consider two more descriptions of Jesus and our response.

First, Jesus is the Prophet Moses Foretold in v22-23.  Back in Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Moses spoke of another prophet who was to come to whom the people must listen.  Peter declares Jesus is the one Moses spoke of.  And so we must, as Moses warned, listen to him.  Are you listening?

Second, Jesus is the Offspring Who Brings Blessing in v25-26.  Back in Genesis 22:18, God had promised Abraham that in his offspring all the families of the world would be blessed.  And in Jesus indeed have the nations found great blessing.  Peter mentions just some of them in Acts 3:

• Jesus blots out our sin (v19).  On the cross he bore our sins that they might be washed away.
• Jesus turns us from our wickedness (v26).  He not only removes the penalty for sin, but also the power of sin.  Where before we walked in sin, now we follow him.
• Jesus brings time of refreshing (v20).  This may refer to the Holy Spirit who now dwells within us.  Truly the presence of the Lord refreshes us – a foretaste of the day when we will dwell with God forever.
• Jesus will restore all things (v20-21).  One day when Jesus returns, there will be a new heavens and earth without suffering, sin, or death.

Jesus is the Prophet to whom we must listen.  And he is the source of many blessings for us to enjoy!

In Acts 3:15, Peter portrays Jesus as the Author of Life.  He is the source of life.  Again we have this indication that Jesus is God, for of course God is the source of life.  He gives physical life, as he gave physical healing to the lame man earlier in Acts 3.  He also gives spiritual life; we can find spiritual healing in him.  Let’s apply this truth to ourselves today.

Jesus gives us life.  He gives us spiritual life, abundant life, eternal life.  As Jesus makes clear in John 17:3, eternal life is knowing the Father and His Son.  Eternal life is to have a relationship with God.  This is what makes us different from the rest of the world.  We have a real relationship with our Creator.  The rest of the world is spiritually dead – separated from God.  But Jesus gives us spiritual life, a relationship with himself. 

What a privilege!  The more we grasp this truth, the more we ought to cultivate this relationship.  We should want to grow in this relationship.  God has given us a book to know him better.  And we can speak to him at any time.  Jesus has given us life – a relationship with him.  Are we cultivating this relationship or squandering it?

In Acts 3:14, Peter portrays Jesus as the Holy and Righteous One. 

He is the Righteous One:  Once again we find an echo from Isaiah 53, this time verse 11, where the suffering servant is referred to as the righteous one.  Other echoes come from Isaiah 32:1, Jeremiah 23:5, and Zechariah 9:9 which all predict that the coming Messiah King will be characterized by righteousness. 

He is the Holy One: That Jesus is the holy one suggests that Jesus is to be understood as God, for we see such references to God in Isaiah 40:25, 43:15. 

He is the Holy and Righteous One: The title in general speaks of his perfection – he is holy and righteous.  This again echoes from Isaiah 53, where verse 9 speaks of the suffering servant having done no violence and having no deceit in his mouth.  Peter later will echo Isaiah 53 in I Peter 2:22 where he says Jesus committed no sin, nor was their deceit in his mouth.

So Jesus is the Messianic King.  Jesus is God.  Jesus is without sin.  Two applications for today:

First, Jesus is our King and God to whom we owe our total allegiance and worship.  We are to obey him in all things.  It doesn’t matter if we feel like it.  It doesn’t matter if we want to obey.  It doesn’t matter if we think Jesus is right or not.  Regardless of our feelings, wants, and thoughts, we must obey.  We must submit.  And we must worship.  Worship includes submission, but then goes further to include praise and honor.  We must offer up our praises to our great God.  We must live for his glory.

Second, Jesus is our righteousness.  He lived a perfect life.  We don’t.  We fail to give Jesus our total allegiance and worship.  But the good news is that his perfect life is attributed or accounted to us.  II Corinthians 5:21 speaks of this miraculous exchange where the Suffering Servant bore our sins, and we now bear the righteousness of the Holy and Righteous One.  In Christ, we change clothes.  He takes my filthy dirty rags upon himself, and he gives me his pure white robe to wear.  So now when God looks at us, he doesn’t see our sin, he sees only the perfection of Christ.  He sees us righteous.  What a glorious truth!