Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 3:19

"Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;" — Acts 3:19 (ASV)

Even more positively, Peter goes on to say that if his hearers repent, their repentance will have a part in ushering in the great events of the end time. Evidently Luke wants us to understand Peter’s call to repentance here as being set within the context of a remnant theology and as being quite unlike Stephen’s attitude (cf. ch. 7). Not only so, but he also wants us to view the earliest proclamation of the Gospel in the Jewish world as a kind of intramural effort, with a self-conscious, righteous remnant issuing prophetic denunciations of Israel’s part in the crucifixion of their Messiah and appealing to the people to turn to God in repentance for the remission of their sins.

The call to repentance itself is tersely stated. Then it is elaborated in words unique in the NT and reflective of Jewish remnant theology. “Repent, then, and turn to God,” says Peter, “so that your sins may be wiped out”—and, further, so that there may be brought about the promised “times of refreshing” and so that with the coming of God’s appointed Messiah, he may “restore everything” (the verbal form [GK 635] of the noun “restoration” [used here; GK 640] is often used in the LXX [Greek version of the OT] for the eschatological restoration of Israel; e.g., Jeremiah 15:19; 16:15; Ezekiel 16:55; Hosea 11:11).