Acts 3:12-26

Second Discourse of St. Peter, 12-26.

This second sermon of St. Peter is even more briefly reported than the first. Compared with the summary Divine wisdom has preserved for us in the ‘Acts,' it must have been originally a discourse of some length. The last division especially (Acts 3:17-26) has apparently been much abbreviated. It evidently starts with the knowledge that much concerning Jesus of Nazareth, dwelt upon by St. Peter at Pentecost, was known to the crowds now thronging the Porch of Solomon. It only touches upon the awful ‘death' of Jesus, in which death he tries to excuse the guilt of the Jewish people by urging for them the plea, ‘They knew not what they did.' The central point of the address is the earnest exhortation to the Jews to repentance and faith, that they might share in the glorious blessings of the future in which blessings they, as the people from whom Christ sprung and to whom He was first sent, seemed especially invited to share.

The sermon falls into two divisions (a) Acts 3:12-16. The miracle of healing the lame man, at which ye marvel, is a work of God's, done to glorify that Jesus of Nazareth whom you crucified and God raised from the dead; (b) Acts 3:17-26. But you did this deed in ignorance, God all the while carrying out His design; so repent now, and share in a salvation which Christ will bring Christ who will one day, as your prophets have said, return.