- Chapters: [[Acts 3]]:17-26 # Forgiveness for [[Steve Smith]] - [[Cricket]] player from [[Australia]] who was banned from the game for a year due to a cheating play - He admitted his wrongs: "I know I'll regret this for the rest of my life... What I did brought shame on my game and country" - This week he's back for the national team as captain, but the press think perhaps not: "Forgiveness is a wonderful thing... but forgiveness has limits" - How in our Christian life do we deal with heavy guilt? # [[Peter]]'s explanation - The crowd has just seen a miraculous healing - [[Peter]] admonishes the crowd: "You handed [[Jesus]] to be killed, and you disowned him before [[Pilate]]", etc - One can imagine the white-hot guilt the crowd feels hearing this - But there's good news following the bad news (c.f. verse 26) - How can we get this blessing? # 1. Turn and be blessed - v. 19: "Repent, then, and turn to [[God]], so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the [[Lord]]" - **Removed**: Note the word "wiped out" -- possible because [[Jesus]] has taken the charge and nailed it with him to the [[Cross]] - Unlike the journalists with [[Steve Smith]], [[Jesus]]' forgiveness has no limits - **Refreshment**: note "times of refreshing". Relief; respite. "may come from the [[Lord]]" - **Return**: v. 20 "...and that he ,ay send the [[Messiah]]" ... v. 21 "Heaven must receive him" - May not sound like a blessing to come face to face with the guy you killed - But it is a blessing - [[Tim Keller]] says: "The bad news is we are more sinful than we could ever dream. The good news is we are more loved by [[Jesus]] than we could ever dream" # 2. [[God]]'s unstoppable plan - You may think "How did you let this evil happen in the first place?" - Current trendy tv show is [[The Celebrity Traitors]], a social deduction game about uncovering the "traitor" who can murder the others one by one, and everyone can vote to kill people who they think is the traitor - Often has lots of hysterics -- plan B, plan C, plan D, etc as they keep executing wrong guesses - The crowd here may think similar -- the [[Messiah]] coming as a plan A, and now they may need a plan B now that they killed him?? - But v. 17: this was always the plan A. [[Peter]] elaborates in v. 21-26