“For Moses truly said unto
the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say
unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet,
shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:22,23).
“The LORD thy God will raise
up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me;
unto Him ye shall hearken…. I will raise them up a Prophet from among
their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He
shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name,
I will require it of him.” (Deut. 18:15,18,19).
“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.
For Moses truly said unto the
fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,
like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you.
And it shall come to pass,
that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from
among the people.
Yea, and all the prophets
from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise
foretold of these days.
Ye are the children of the
prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham,
And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
Unto you first God, having
raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of
you from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:19-26, cf Isa. 11:1-10).
In a past post we looked at
Acts 3:26. This verse is the finale statement to the people that great day in Jerusalem. A
miracle healing had grabbed the consciences of the people and their ears were
circumcised to hear truth. How did the miracle happen? Was it Peter and John having
divine power, or sufficient holiness, to heal? No. It was Jesus who had that
power and holiness. “Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole.” (Acts 4:10). “God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you.”
(Acts 3:26). This was not referring to Christ’s blessing them during His 3 ½
year earthly ministry, but to His blessing as a result of the event that took
place that day with Peter and John. About 5,000 people who saw the miracle and repented
received blessing from their Father in heaven. “God, having raised up His Son
Jesus” who “was preached unto you” “by the mouth of all His holy prophets since
the world began”, “sent Him to bless you”. “Yea, and all the prophets from
Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise
foretold of these days.”
“These days” Jesus blessed the Jewish people who witnessed the
healing of the man lame from birth, and He led them to repentance, per Isaiah
11:4-6 and Romans 4:2. That day God sent Jesus in Spirit to heal the lame man
laid at the temple gate for the healing of the people’s souls. Their repentance created another
revival like at the beginning under Joshua. “And an Angel of the LORD came up
from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have
brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will
never break My covenant with you. And ye shall make no league with the
inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not
obeyed My voice: why have ye done this?... And it came to pass, when the Angel
of the LORD spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people
lifted up their voice, and wept.” (Jdg. 2:1,2,4).
That Jesus would be sent for a
refreshing had been proclaimed to the Jews in advance of the Gentile world. First
to the nation of Israel new hearts would receive conversion. They would have reprieve from
the curse of God before the remainder of Isaiah’s chapter 11 prophecy would be
completed for the world. Then when the Gentiles would join the Jews, it would be said, “His rest
shall be glorious.” (Isa. 11:10, cf 49:7-13,17-26;59:17-21; 60:1-22). The reuniting of a redeemed race would be wonderful beyond description.
“The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the
young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear
shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw
like the ox.
And the sucking child shall
play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the
cockatrice’ den.
They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
And in that day there shall
be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall
the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious.
And it shall come to pass in
that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and
from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the islands of the sea.
And He shall set up an ensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together
the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim
shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not
envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
But they shall fly upon the
shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east
together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of
Ammon shall obey them.
And the LORD shall utterly
destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with His mighty wind shall He shake
His hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men
go over dryshod.
And there shall be an highway
for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it
was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.” (Isa.
11:6-16).
So, from scripture Peter
explains to the people that this wonderful occurrence was the fulfillment of
prophecy from Moses. Christ would bring to Israel a replacement, another Moses,
and exalt Him from among His Israelite brethren. Moses had said that some of the
people would heed Him and find Him to present the same truths that Moses gave. But whoever wouldn’t heed this Prophet to come would be cut off from God.
“The Father loveth the Son,
and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath
everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the
wrath of God abideth on him.” (John 3:35,36).
Yet, there would remain forbearance
for anyone who would turn and repent.
“And they also, if they abide
not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in
again.” (Rom. 11:23).
When Messiah came, Moses’
prophecy was fulfilled in every detail. Jesus, the Son of the Highest, who was God
in the flesh and the fullness of the Godhead manifested, grew up among His
people of Israel. Most of His own people knew Him not, but to as many as
received Him He gave power to become sons of God. And His rejectors were blinded.
But, according to Peter,
Jesus did not end His work of blessing the people after He ascended to heaven.
He must serve as High Priest in our behalf before His Father. He must remain at His Father’s side physically, just as His 500 disciples saw Him bodily go into heaven. He
must not yet return bodily in vengeance against all of His Father’s enemies for
the reconstitution of His Father’s sinless kingdom in heaven and earth. But,
until that full reconstitution, there would be, as there had been in the past, “times
of refreshing” when the Father would send His Son.
Until the Day of Judgment, the promise would remain, “Seek ye the LORD while He
may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.” (Isa. 55:6).
There would be times when
their jealous God would be near enough to make contact with them, but only
because they had removed all the idols that divided their hearts from full
repentance and obedience.
“That they should seek the
Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far
from every one of us.” (Acts 17:27).
“So the LORD alone did lead
him, and there was no strange god with him.” (Deut. 32:12).
Being humbled after seventy
years of captivity would be one of those “times” when there could be
restoration of the heaven-earth relation.
“For thus saith the LORD,
That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and
perform My good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give
you an expected end.
Then shall ye call upon Me,
and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek Me, and
find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.
And I will be found of you,
saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from
all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the
LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be
carried away captive.” (Jer. 29:10-14).
The refreshing would come
through deep repentance and conversion of the heart, sins blotted out and God’s
reconciling blessing poured out.
“A new heart also will I give
you, and a new Spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My
judgments, and do them…. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and
I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.” (Eze.
36:26,27,29).
Jesus would cause them to “prosper
and be in health, even as [their] soul prospereth.” (3Jn. 1:2). To His contrite
and humbled children He promised, “[I will]…open the windows of heaven, and
pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And
I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits
of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the
field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye
shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:10-12).
Jerusalem didn’t become that
glorious utopia, but Antioch did. “Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus, for to
seek Saul: and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came
to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and
taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. And
in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch.” (Acts 11:25-27).
Archeology shows that Antioch
became a prosperous center of commerce and a city of comparably large dwellings, with a
spiritual, scripture-based influence that stretched around the world. History
declares of Antioch:
“It was at Antioch, capital
of Syria, that the believers were first called Christians. And as time rolled
on, the Syrian-speaking Christians could be numbered by the thousands. It is
generally admitted, that the Bible was translated from the original languages
into Syrian about 150 A.D. This version is known as the Peshitto… “The Peshitto
in our days is found in use amongst the Nestorians, who have always kept it, by
the Monophysites on the plains of Syria, the Christians of St. Thomas in
Malabar, and by the Maronites, on the mountain terraces of Lebanon.” .… And the Greek New Testament, the Received
Text they brought with them, or its translation, was of the type from which the
Protestant Bibles, as the King James in English, and the Lutheran in German,
were translated.… Onward then pushed those heroic bands of evangelists to
England, to southern France, and northern Italy. The Mediterranean was like the
trunk of a tree with branches running out to these parts, the roots of the tree
being in Judea or Asia Minor, from whence the sap flowed westward to fertilize
the distant lands.” B. G. Wilkinson, Our
Authorized Bible Vindicated, p. 12-15.
Jesus was at the helm of this
great spreading of the gospel truths, as Joshua had reclaimed the land of the
Canaanites promised to Israel. “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and He
that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto Him: and He went forth
conquering, and to conquer.” (Rev. 6:2).
To a church newly delivered
from the paganism of Rome, Jesus said, “As captain of the host of the LORD am I
now come.” (Josh. 5:14).
“And all the inhabitants of
the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His
hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?” (Dan. 4:35).
Jesus was that prophet Moses
spoke of and His work as commander of the hosts of heaven would bring blessing
and cursing.
“Behold, this Child is set
for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be
spoken against.” (Luke 2:34).
Jesus, whom His Father had
raised up, even from the dead, brought Him up to Himself as He ascended to
God to sit at His right hand. “While they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud
received Him out of their sight.” (Acts 1:9). The “[Man-]Child was caught up
unto God, and to His throne.” (Rev. 12:5).
This same Jesus would be sent
to bless us. As that day at the temple their hearts were convicted of sin, the
Man-Child comes to all as the Spirit of truth. “God…sent Him to bless you, in
turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:26). “Thou shalt
call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Matt.
1:21). It is by turning us away from iniquity that Jesus blesses all who will
be humbled by the conviction of sin. To them truth becomes more precious than
all besides.
Jesus comes as a Prophet. “I
have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might
believe.” (John 14:29). Thus, “the Lord is that Spirit.” (2Cor. 3:17). The
Spirit of Prophecy is His voice, His testimony. “The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit
of prophecy.” (Rev. 19:10). “Thou shalt stand before Me: and if thou take forth
the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth.” (Jer. 15:19).
“Of which salvation the
prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace
that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of
Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.” (1Pet. 1:10,11).
“And I will pray the Father,
and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even
the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not,
neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in
you. I will not leave you comfortless: I
will come to you.” (John 14:16-18).
Jesus would come to the
prophet as He came to faithful and “greatly beloved” Daniel.
“He that hath My
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me
shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to
him. Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt
manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We
will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:21-23).
To all who hold truth dear, the
Father would give the Spirit of truth, the Comforter. It would be the presence
of Jesus to His forlorn disciples. He would come to them via this divine
transmission from God. The Father would “receive of Mine, and…shew it unto” His
apostles. Gabriel would have a part in this transmission, as he had to the
greatly beloved prophet of the past (see Dan. 10:4-21, cf Dan. 8:16; 9:21).
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth;
It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.
And when He is come, He will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
Of sin, because they believe
not on Me;
Of righteousness, because I
go to My Father, and ye see me no more;
Of judgment, because the
prince of this world is judged.
I have yet many things to say
unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of
truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself;
but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things
to come.
He shall glorify Me: for He
shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.
All things that the Father
hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it
unto you.” (John 16:7-15).
The Spirit of truth who “will
guide you into all truth” (John 16:13), is the Lord’s breath and His anointing.
“He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” (John
20:22). Jesus enacted Pentecost in miniature. “The anointing which ye have
received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as
the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and
even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him. And now, little children,
abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be
ashamed before Him at His coming.” (1Jn. 2:27,28).
The Prophet of prophets is
the Spirit of prophecy, the Giver of every gift and every truth. “The same
anointing…is truth” “I am…the truth” (1Jn. 2:27; John 14:6). The anointing that teaches us all things is Jesus as He promised to draw near to us, to be with us, and even to be in us unto the end of the world. No man spake like
this Man because no other man was the Truth. The Spirit of Christ which was in
the prophets was the voice of Christ to their soul. He anointed them with His
presence, where is fullness of joy. His Father anoints Him with His own Spirit;
and Jesus takes of His own Spirit and anoints His fellowservants, His brethren who
“have the testimony of Jesus”, which “is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10,
cf Rev. 1:1).
“Hear; for I will speak of
excellent things; and the opening of My lips shall be right things. For My
mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to My lips.” (Prov.
8:6,7).
“Thou lovest righteousness,
and hatest wickedness: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil
of gladness above Thy fellows.” (Ps. 45:7).
“Therefore my heart is glad,
and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.…
Thou wilt shew me the path of
life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures
for evermore.” (Ps. 16:9,11).
