After Pentecost, Peter and John heal a lame man at the Temple gate. The miracle draws a crowd, and Peter preaches Jesus as the Prophet like Moses, calling the people to repent so that times of refreshing may come and the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets may be completed in their horizon.
1 Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 A certain man who was lame from his mother’s womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.
12 When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.
19 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, 20 and that he may send Christ Jesus, who was ordained for you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God spoke long ago by the mouth of his holy prophets.
22 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. 23 It will be that every soul that will not listen to that prophet will be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24 Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.
Source: ebible.org
Moses promised a prophet like himself; the people must listen. Whoever will not listen will be destroyed from among the people. Peter applies this to Jesus without hesitation. The warning is covenantal and historical for that generation. The Prophet like Moses brings the new word that ends the old administration. Listening means entering the New Covenant; refusal met the judgment of AD 70.
All the prophets from Samuel onward told of these days. The referent is Peter’s present. The apostolic generation stands at the hinge between Old and New. To push the prophets’ climax past that generation is to ignore Peter’s explicit claim.
Heaven receives Jesus until the times of restoration of all things spoken by the prophets. Peter says the prophets spoke of these days. They spoke of remnant regathering, new covenant, and the end of the old order — not of an infinite postponement of every hope. The restoration is the transfer from shadow to substance. When the old house was removed, what cannot be shaken remained.
Repentance is urged so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. The offer is urgent because the horizon of judgment and restoration is the generation Peter addresses. The healed man is a sign: the name of Jesus restores what the Temple courts could not.
The Prophet has spoken; the restoration has come in the New Covenant order. We do not wait for another Moses or another Temple. The Name that made the lame walk is the Name by which we stand in the unshakable Kingdom.
If Peter said the prophets told of “these days,” how does that change the way you read the rest of the Old Testament’s climax promises?