Daily Scripture Reading Acts 3:12 - 4:10

You may have heard the expression, “Kill them with kindness”. Some Christians apply this philosophy to evangelism. They avoid saying anything that might insult the person they are trying to convert. People doing ministry to Arabs avoid talking about Jews. Evangelists downplay sin because they don’t want potential converts to think it will take a huge change in order to become a Christian. In other words, Christians often try to minimize the amount of humility and contrition a person will need to experience in order to become a Christian.

Today, in Acts 3, we will see an example of Peter sharing the good news of Jesus with Jews in Jerusalem. Peter was speaking to people who weeks earlier had celebrated the death of Jesus. Peter did not try to kill them with kindness. He did not allow them to ignore their culpability. Instead, he brought them face to face with their guilt. He did not allow them to avoid feeling shame over their treatment of Jesus. Perhaps this is an indication that when we do evangelism, we should not kill people with kindness. Instead, we need to bring sin to the forefront and force people to experience shame, humility, and contrition.

Yesterday, in the beginning of Acts 3, we read about Peter and John healing a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb. As the healed man walked into the temple, the crowd recognized him as being the man who had been lame. Then the crowd gathered around Peter and John, being full of wonder.

Acts 3:12 But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk?

Notice Peter was very quick to decline credit for the healing.

Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.

Pay attention to the pronoun “you”. Peter was forthright about his audience’s culpability in the crucifixion of Jesus.

Acts 3:14 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you,

Acts 3:15 but put to death the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.

In verse 14 Peter once again used the pronoun “you”. Then Peter boldly proclaimed the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Acts 3:16 And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Peter gave Jesus the credit for healing the lame man.

Acts 3:17 ¶ “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also.

Peter acknowledged that the people crucified Jesus in ignorance.

Acts 3:18 But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled.

Peter reminded the people that the events of the life of Jesus had been announced beforehand by the prophets. Even though the people had crucified Jesus in ignorance, they could not continue to claim to be ignorant that Jesus had fulfilled the Old Testament.

Acts 3:19 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;

Peter told the people to repent. Repentance is hard. Repentance requires change.

Many churches today want to grow numerically, so they try to make conversion as easy as possible. Since repentance is hard, they ignore repentance. However, repentance is a requirement for salvation. Christians must not downplay repentance in order to gain so-called converts because people who do not repent are not actually saved.

We cannot gain true converts to Christianity by killing people with kindness. People have to own their sin and repent of it. If that requires a potential convert to experience shame and contrition, then that is what has to happen.

Acts 3:20 and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,

Acts 3:21 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.

Jesus will be in heaven until the time of restoration.

Acts 3:22 Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BROTHERS; TO HIM YOU SHALL LISTEN to everything He says to you.

This statement of Moses is recorded in Deuteronomy 18:15.

Acts 3:23 AND IT WILL BE THAT EVERY SOUL THAT DOES NOT HEED THAT PROPHET SHALL BE UTTERLY DESTROYED FROM AMONG THE PEOPLE.’

This statement of Moses is recorded in Deuteronomy 18:19.

Peter’s point in quoting these two verses is that Jesus is the prophet Moses promised.

Acts 3:24 And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also proclaimed these days.

Acts 3:25 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.’

Acts 3:26 For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

There are many verses in the Old Testament in which God promised the Israelites that certain things would happen in the future. Jesus was the fulfillment of many of those promises. Peter was trying to get his listeners to understand that fact.

Acts 4:1 ¶ Now as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

Acts 4:2 being greatly agitated because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Note the word “agitated” and the word “resurrection”. The Jewish leaders had killed Jesus and thought they had rid themselves of a menace, but now the apostles were claiming Jesus had risen from the dead.

Acts 4:3 And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening.

The Bible does not specify who all was included in the pronoun “them”. It certainly included Peter and John. According to Acts 3:11, the man who had been healed was with Peter and John when Peter began preaching, so he may also have been detained.

Acts 4:4 But many of those who had heard the message believed, and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

Don’t miss the word “believe”. The people who believed Peter’s message were saved. Only the people who believed Peter’s message were saved.

Many Christians today share the gospel without emphasizing the necessity of believing in Jesus. However, belief is essential to salvation.

Acts 4:5 ¶ Now it happened that on the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem;

Acts 4:6 and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent.

Acts 4:7 And when they had placed them in their midst, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?”

Acts 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people,

Acts 4:9 if we are being examined today for a good deed done to a sick man, as to how this man has been saved from his sickness,

Acts 4:10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health.

Clearly, the man who had been healed was with Peter and John in front of the religious leaders.

Peter did not shy away from the truth. He bluntly told the religious leaders that the man they had crucified had been raised from the dead and was the One who healed the lame man. Peter was not trying to convert them by being kind. He knew they had to acknowledge they were wrong about Jesus in order to be saved.

To what extent do you try to convert people to Christianity by being kind and avoiding any topic that would cause them to hesitate to become a Christian?

To what extent do you try to present Christianity in a way that minimizes the amount of humility and contrition a person will need to experience in order to become a Christian?

In light of how Peter spoke to the Jews in Jerusalem, what is the appropriate way for you to address the sins of people you are trying to convert to Christianity?

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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”