Acts 3:17-26 :
“Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But the things which God announced by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled.
“Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets. For Moses indeed said to the fathers, ‘The Lord God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in all things whatever he says to you. It will be, that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days. You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your seed will all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up his servant, Jesus, sent him to you first, to bless you, in turning away everyone of you from your wickedness.”
In this passage, we read that even though the Jewish people didn’t know what they were doing when they had Jesus killed, God used it to fulfill prophesy. We read here that all of the prophets spoke about Jesus in advance. This is something to keep in mind when reading the Old Testament as it gives us a better understanding of what it means.
Peter then tells his “brothers,” the Jewish people, that God wants to take away their sin. He also says that God plans to “send Christ Jesus” to them for the “times of restoration of all things.” Jesus will be coming back for Israel to restore the world to a proper government centered on God Himself.
The warning that Peter repeats for them is simply the warning that God gave through Moses that if they don’t repent of their sin and listen to Jesus, they “will be utterly destroyed from among the people.”
If you have taken my study in the Book of John, you may remember the prophesy Moses spoke about Jesus. It is a great study by itself about the grace of God in the Old Testament and it proves where God’s heart is and what His plans really were for Israel even though they chose the burden of obeying the Law instead. We also learn here that God promised that the world will be blessed by Israel as we see today in Jesus Christ. The Bible also tells us that we share in the faith of Abraham and become his children because we have the same kind of faith that Abraham did. Notice that God sent Jesus to Israel first. This is the appropriate order for the announcement of the Gospel. You will find this repeated in scripture. The Jews come first, then the Gentiles. I am so thankful that we, as Gentiles, were given such a great gift by way of the Jews. Now we, as Gentile Christians, have been blessed and turned from our wickedness to Jesus Christ.