Moses, Samuel, David, Jeremiah, Joel... and JESUS

“A Refreshing Experience” – Part 4

(Acts 3:22-26, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 27, 2011)

22 Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’

24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days.

25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’

26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”

Moses said... (22-23)

Moses was a man, and not a god. He was a man whom God called and used to do things that were far beyond his ability. Moses did not want to be God's premiere representative to Israel. He begged God to choose someone else. During his lifetime the people of Israel often stood against him. He said to the Lord at a moment of crisis, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

Yet after his death, he was greatly revered. The books that he wrote were recognized to be the word of God as well as the books of Moses. In the final of his five books, Deuteronomy, as he was preparing to leave this earth, he told the people of Israel that the Lord God would raise up for them a prophet like him from among them. The people had a responsibility to listen to that prophet, and to do whatever he told them to do. Peter told the assembled crowd in Acts 3, that Jesus of Nazareth was that great prophet.

Moses had said about that prophet who would come one day, that every soul who did not listen to that prophet would be destroyed from the people. Peter reminded his listeners about this, because it was through faith in the Name of Jesus that a man who was lame from birth had been healed. Peter wanted to remind them that the Messiah would not only be a great healer as the prophet Isaiah had spoken, making the blind see and the lame leap for joy. He would also be the Prophet that Moses spoke to them about. It was time for them to listen to Jesus, or to face what Moses said would come upon those who would not listen to the coming prophet. It was not enough for the people to be happy about the miracle that day. They had to praise God about the miracle, but they should also start listening to Jesus Christ as a part of His church.

And all the prophets... (24)

It was not only Moses that had prepared Israel for the Messiah. The books associated with the name of Samuel contained a major revelation about the Christ. In 2 Samuel God spoke to David about a descendant that would reign forever. David wrote about this in the Psalms, and this expectation of a great eternal King was something that the prophets added more information to so that when the Christ came, He fulfilled all of the words of many Old Testament prophets.

These prophets not only wrote about the Messiah figure, but also about the kingdom that he would bring. The people needed to connect this healing and the amazing life of the church in Jerusalem with those words that were also accepted by the Jews as the word of God. The books of Moses were the word of God. The books of Samuel were the word of God. The psalms of David were the word of God. The writings of all the prophets were the word of God. God used all of these writers to prepare His people for Jesus, and for this new moment in the history of the world. The New Covenant that Jeremiah spoke of was here. The Holy Spirit that Joel wrote about had been poured out. The age of resurrection life had begun in Jesus Christ. According to Peter, to reject Jesus, a devout Jew had to reject a correct understanding of Moses, of Samuel, of David, and of all the prophets. That's too much to reject.

You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant... (25)

In their day, each prophet faced the mistreatment of the people who were their contemporaries. The people rebelled against Moses, and they rebelled against men like Jeremiah and all the others. They were afraid of them, since they were all great men of God, but they wanted to get their hands on them all the same. God spoke to Samuel about this when the people of his day insisted on having a king like the nations. He said, they have not rejected you. They have rejected Me. The prophets were abused because people stand against the Lord and against His Messiah.

But generations later, Moses and the prophets were revered. To hear them was to hear God. To accept their message and to receive the Messiah that they were patiently revealing was to be a son of the prophets, rather than a son of those who persecuted and killed them. To accept Jesus was to accept God's great covenant with Abraham, the father of Ishmael and the father of Isaac.

That great covenant of promise was the beginning of the entire people of the Jews. But it was more than that. The word of God to Abraham, who lived long before Moses and the other prophets, spoke of a future blessing that was far more than a word for Jews. God said to Abraham, “In your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Jesus of Nazareth is that offspring. It is four thousand years since those words were first spoken. In our day they are proving to be very true. All the people groups of the earth are being claimed in Jesus Christ through the preaching of His Name. Through His cross and resurrection, hope is touching people all over the earth.

And that he may send the Christ... (26)

First, after God raised up Jesus, he sent Him to His few disciples. That was where Christianity started. Soon it was growing among many Jews through the message of the church. The Jews received this message before all the other people groups of the earth. But now we have come to hear it along with many other people all over the globe.

Whether Jew or Gentile, anyone who will receive this message, anyone who will not be offended by the provision of a Savior who satisfies divine justice and reconciles us to God through His own blood, will receive an excellent blessing. God will turn us from our wickedness. Truly the promise to Abraham is being fulfilled in our lives. In Jesus we are being greatly blessed.

If you like to see the lame leap for joy, then start paying more attention to the words of Jesus. If you have never really gotten into the Bible and you don't know where to start, pick one of the four gospels that start the New Testament. See who Jesus is. Hear what He says. Pay attention to what He does. Find out if you agree with the church throughout the centuries who have found Him to be the Man from heaven. Once you have found Jesus, stay close to Him. He will lead you into the rest of the Bible. Then, whether you go to Moses, or to Samuel or to David, or to one of the prophets, Jesus will show you how they prepared people for Him.

1. What did Moses say about a future prophet?

2. How did God reveal the coming New Testament era through the prophets?

3. How were those hearing Peter that day the “sons of the prophets?”

4. What is Peter referring to when he mentions that God sent Jesus to them first?

OT Passage: Genesis 12:1-3