Seasons of Refreshing and the Presence of the Lord

"While he was holding on to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astonished, ran toward them in what is called Solomon's Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he addressed the people: 'Fellow Israelites, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us, as though we had made him walk by our own power or godliness? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and denied before Pilate, though he had decided to release him. You denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer released to you. You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong, whom you see and know. So the faith that comes through Jesus has given him this perfect health in front of all of you.  And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. In this way God fulfilled what he had predicted through all the prophets; that his Messiah would suffer. Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah. Heaven must receive him until the time of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about through his holy prophets from the beginning. Moses said: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers and sisters. You must listen to everything he tells you. And everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be completely cut off from the people.  In addition, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, have also foretold these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, And all the families of the earth will be blessed through your offspring. God raised up his servant and sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your evil ways.'" [Act 3:11-26 CSB, emphasis my own]

Observations:

• Is there anything important that happened before this passage that we need to be aware of? 
• God made a covenant with His servant Abraham that his children would be a source of blessing to the whole world. 
• Abraham's children became the nation of Israel.
• God sent prophets to Israel to tell them of a coming Messiah who would save them. 
• When God sent Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah to Israel, the Israelites crucified him. Their Roman ruler, Pilate, tried to let Jesus off the hook by offering the Israelites the choice to crucify Jesus or another known murderer. The Israelites chose to crucify Jesus and set the known murderer free.
• After Jesus was crucified, he rose from the dead and appeared to his many disciples before ascending into heaven. 
• Two of his disciples, Peter and John, had recently healed a lame man at the temple in Jesus' name.

• Who says what? 
• Peter talks to Israelites who are astonished by the miracle of the healing of a lame man. His main points can be summarized this way: 
• Do you think me and my buddy have this type of miraculous power? No way!
• This was done by the power of Jesus of Nazareth, who you chose to have crucified. 
• You were ignorant about the fact that when you crucified Jesus, you were crucifying the source of life and the Son of God. 
• It is faith in this Jesus of Nazareth, however, that made the lame man walk again. 
• If you repent from your ignorance and your choices, seasons of refreshing may come from your fellowship with God.
• These seasons would come because Jesus is the Messiah that was talked about by all the prophets, the one God anointed to restore all things. 
• You are the sons of the prophets, so God is especially interested in restoring His relationship with you, but this can only happen if you repent for your wickedness.

• What were some of the long term results of choices that were made? 
• Because of Abraham's choice to follow God, Jesus came to Abraham's children, even though his children hated Jesus. 
• Because of God's choice to send the prophets, Jesus' coming was validified through scripture.
• Because of their choice to put their faith in Jesus, Peter and John were able to heal the lame.
• Because of his refusal to take the glory away from God, Peter is able to speak into the Israelites lives about their relationship with God. 

Applications:

• Today, are people ever ignorant about who Jesus truly is? Absolutely, although today there are also those who are fully aware of who He is, yet who choose not follow Him anyways. This group of people sometimes feel much larger than the group of people who are ignorant to who He is. 
• Today, do seasons of refreshing still come from the presence of the Lord after we repent? Once again, I have to say: absolutely. One of the most distinctly refreshing times in my life came during/after a season of repenting. God was dealing with some serious fears, mixed up with pride and naivete, through a fast.  I remember that by the end of the fast, I was feeling so close to God, I didn't want to stop fasting. As much as I hate saying this (for myself as much as anyone else), I think that often when we feel the need for spiritual refreshment, the place to start is with some soul-searching and asking God to show us the areas of darkness in our heart that we need to start repenting from. He is so faithful to show us this, and to bring seasons of refreshing from them. I feel like God's presence is stronger in these moments to communicate His love for us-- that when we are most aware of our own short-comings and failures, that is also when He wants us to be most aware of His great love for us in the midst of those short-comings and failures. I mean, if anyone had failed God, it was the ancient Israelites who crucified Him, yet here He is, showing up in the midst of their failure, saying to them: I still love you and desire to be with you. And, if we look at spiritual realities, all of humanity is guilty for putting Jesus on that cross. We all failed Him miserably through our selfishness and sin. Still, He shows up in the midst of our failure, in the midst of our self-loathing, and He says: I still love you, and I love you with an Everlasting Love-- nothing can separate you from this love-- nothing you do, nothing anyone else does, nothing crazy on this earth that happens, NOTHING can separate you from my everlasting, unconditional love. And THAT knowledge-- the knowledge of an all-powerful Creator's everlasting, unconditional love-- will bring a season of refreshing to any soul. 

As always, other thoughts, observations, and applications welcome!

Yours Truly, 

Jordan