Acts 3:12-26 | Mercy For The Misguided

Sermon Outline

ME

• How many times have you said, “I had no idea”? We don’t know what we don’t know. Story of Dawn getting poison ivy just before we got married.

WE

• As we continue, it bears repeating the purpose for Luke writing the Gospel of Luke and Acts. He said in Acts 1:1 he wrote the Gospel to tell of all Jesus had begun, and now Acts tells of all he continued to do, but not by himself, but through his Spirit in the apostles.
• One thing Jesus had begun was a prayer. He makes a very difficult-to-comprehend prayer as he is being crucified.
  
  
  “Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”” Luke 23:34A NLT
  
  
  It’s difficult to put into words what kind of man, while being whipped, beaten, forced to carry the instrument of their execution, and then nailed to a cross, could pray such a prayer. But he does. Our Jesus, in the midst of injustice, prays for God’s mercy of forgiveness over the people who put him there.
• This prayer is one thing among many that Jesus began. He instilled in his last moments before death the priority of mercy over those who act out of ignorance.
• Today we’re going to look at a passage of Scripture that confronts the prayers of Jesus and the actions of man. I want to read a verse before we jump in.
  
  
  “Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things. Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.” Acts 3:17-19 NLT
  
  
  Peter, in his speech after the healing of the crippled man, highlights something Jesus prayed for: the treatment of those who do something, even a terrible something, unknowingly or out of ignorance.
• Here’s the question for today:How does God help us make things right—even if we didn’t know we were wrong?Let’s pray.

GOD

• To begin today we need to set the scene.Peter and John, on their way to the temple, have stopped at the gate called Beautiful because a man is there begging, and he asks them for money. Peter and John don’t give him money, but by the power of Jesus, he is healed. Upon his healing, they all make their way into a place of the temple called Solomon’s Colonnade, which is believed to be the only original area of the temple built by Solomon literally 1000 years before.
• Read Acts 3:12-15:“Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. ‘People of Israel,’ he said, ‘what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!’” Acts 3:12-15 NLT
• Who really healed the man?
• The question of this passage is who really healed the man?
  • Why is that a question? We can’t look at it from what we know, but imagine it from the perspective of the real-time perspective of the person that was present.
  • In those days, it was a common thought that miracles only happened in proportion to the piety of a person. If a person was without sin, then God might use them.
    • The truth was, no one was without sin, but we sometimes even think this today.
    • Maybe you can remember back to that person growing up who was seemingly perfect, and you thought they, of all people, would most definitely be successful.
• Luke records Peter saying a couple of key statements.Peter reminds them they rejected Jesus, hung him on a cross, and chose a murderer to be released.
  • This firmly fixes the political views of the apostles, or at least Peter.They don’t have sympathy for revolution at the expense of innocence.
  • In fact, he goes on to contrast a deep irony.
• V15 is a paradoxical statement:“You killed the author of life.”That word author denotes someone who pioneers a way—someone who doesn’t accomplish for their own glory, but so that others may follow him.
  • Jesus was, and is, the way, the truth, and the life. Belief in him is the only way to eternal life.
  • “But God”—this statement reveals a vital truth: our ignorance cannot derail God’s purposes. What God has spoken will come to pass!
  • When they released death, they killed life. Just think about this for a second. How quick are we to choose what is immediately gratifying over what is eternally significant? Just like Adam & Eve in the garden, they chose to entertain their curiosities and release sin and death over choosing life.
  • This paradox defines the gospel’s tension of human guilt colliding with divine grace.
• Peter, however, takes absolutely no responsibility for the healing of the man but completely places the source of the healing in faith in Jesus.
  • “Why do you stare at us as if we made him walk?” We so quickly judge a situation by what we see.
  • “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.” Acts 3:16 NLT
  • The tone of this isn’t condemning but corrective. He’s pointing to the fact that Jesus’ continuing work through his Spirit.
• Transition:While the miracle happened because of Jesus, Peter also brings up not just the role the people played in Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. The fact was and is…

Ignorance Doesn’t Erase Responsibility

• “Friends, I realize that what you and your leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance. But God was fulfilling what all the prophets had foretold about the Messiah—that he must suffer these things.” Acts 3:17-18 NLT
• Peter softens the charge without removing accountability:“Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your rulers.”Think back to the prayer Jesus prayed on the cross. He echoes Jesus’ prayer on the cross — “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
• Ignorance explains their actions, but it does not excuse them.So many people want to be excused without accountability.
• In a very divine way, God is offering forgiveness before eternal accountability. Their actions and revolutionary bent will still have consequences in this life. By about 70 AD, the temple and most of Jerusalem will be destroyed.
• Peter’s statement opens the door for mercy, not for exemption.God was sovereignly fulfilling what the prophets foretold—that the Messiah must suffer. Even their misguided actions fit within God’s redemptive plan.This reveals a vital truth: our ignorance cannot derail God’s purposes.
• God judges actions by the heart—He understands intent—but He still calls for repentance and growth in understanding.The people thought they were protecting their nation; Pilate thought he was keeping political peace. Yet God used their blindness to accomplish salvation.Peter’s compassion here reflects divine patience—God corrects ignorance through truth, not condemnation.

The Call and the Promise

• “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah. For he must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his holy prophets.” Acts 3:19-21 NLT
• Forgiveness and repentance go hand in hand.Forgiveness comes from God; repentance comes from us.
• Can we be forgiven without repentance?I would submit to you no. The call and invitation only come from God. He extends the opportunity to be forgiven, but we must turn from our sin and path to follow him.
• The word calls life after forgiveness, “times of refreshment.”It’s the realization that our hearts are now unburdened by our past. Sure, the devil will try to remind you of it, but the debt and shame of it is, in fact, gone by the power of Jesus Christ.
• It’s Jesus' invitation to a life of partnership with him.“Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.’” Matthew 11:28 NLT
• Is the path of repentance and following Jesus easy? No, often it’s harder. Is it worth it? Absolutely.The most refreshing moments come from the rest well worked for.
• Story:The most refreshing part of the day for me is not waking up; I wake up like a bear coming out of hibernation. I’m a morning person, but mostly because I’ve chosen to be.
  • The most refreshing part of the day for me is taking off my socks just before I lay down to go to sleep!That! I lay down, and glory to our Lord and Savior, he gives me rest!
• Transition:Peter, with the healed man standing beside him, preaches of who actually healed this man, our call to repentance, and our promise in Christ, but he ends with a sobering reminder of…

The Covenant Privilege and Purpose

• “Starting with Samuel, every prophet spoke about what is happening today. You are the children of those prophets, and you are included in the covenant God promised to your ancestors. For God said to Abraham, ‘Through your descendants, all the families on earth will be blessed.’ When God raised up his servant, Jesus, he sent him first to you, people of Israel, to bless you by turning each of you back from your sinful ways.” Acts 3:24-26 NLT
• The privilege of knowing Christ is not exclusive to the Jewish people of Peter’s day, nor is it exclusive to us.They were the first to receive, and they were then meant to be the first to share.
• In these verses, Peter closes by circling back around to how he began.The same servant they rejected is now sent again, not in wrath, but in grace, to bless them through repentance.
• Transition:So what does this mean for us?

YOU

• I would like to invite you to place yourselves in the shoes of those watching this happen and hearing Peter speak that day. Have you, like them, ever done something you didn’t understand the consequences of?
• We’ve all said and done things we wished we could take back. Whatever the reason for our actions, the gospel still applies to everyone, even someone who has followed Christ for a long time.

Gospel Logic

• GuiltWe’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.You’ve even sinned and fallen short at some point since you started following Jesus.Just call it for what it is: guilt.Practice it sometime: “I was wrong.”
• GraceWhile guilt is guilt, no matter if done unknowingly or on purpose, God offers a path forward in grace. It’s the continuation of Jesus' final prayer on the cross: “Father, forgive them because they don’t know what they do.”
• GoGo and sin no more.I can’t tell you how many people over the years I’ll see again and again for the same issues.The reality is most of us don’t have one-off problems; we have habits.
  • Ways of living that continuously place us in the same situation again and again.My favorite thing I’ve ever heard is to admit it, quit it, and forget it.Move on!Mental health is a lot less of an issue in life when we focus on Christ instead of our past problems.

Conclusion

• Remember our question for today: How does God help us make things right even when we don’t know we were wrong?He allows us to see our guilt; just like Peter did on that day in Solomon’s Colonnade, he gives grace and a call to repentance, and he gives us times of refreshing where we no longer carry the burden of our past sin but a new life in him.

WE