The Coming Messiah: the Righteous Branch

1“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares the Lord. 2Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,” declares the Lord. 3“Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. 4I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

5“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,

“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;

And He will reign as king and act wisely

And do justice and righteousness in the land.

6In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell securely;

And this is His name by which He will be called,

‘The Lord our righteousness.’

7“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 8but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.”

False Prophets Denounced

9As for the prophets:

My heart is broken within me,

All my bones tremble;

I have become like a drunken man,

Even like a man overcome with wine,

Because of the Lord

And because of His holy words.

10For the land is full of adulterers;

For the land mourns because of the curse.

The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.

Their course also is evil

And their might is not right.

11“For both prophet and priest are polluted;

Even in My house I have found their wickedness,” declares the Lord.

12“Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,

They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;

For I will bring calamity upon them,

The year of their punishment,” declares the Lord.

13“Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:

They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.

14Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:

The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;

And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,

So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.

All of them have become to Me like Sodom,

And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

15Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets,

‘Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood

And make them drink poisonous water,

For from the prophets of Jerusalem

Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’ ”

16Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.

They are leading you into futility;

They speak a vision of their own imagination,

Not from the mouth of the Lord.

17They keep saying to those who despise Me,

‘The Lord has said, “You will have peace” ’;

And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,

They say, ‘Calamity will not come upon you.’

18But who has stood in the council of the Lord,

That he should see and hear His word?

Who has given heed to His word and listened?

19Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath,

Even a whirling tempest;

It will swirl down on the head of the wicked.

20The anger of the Lord will not turn back

Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart;

In the last days you will clearly understand it.

21I did not send these prophets,

But they ran.

I did not speak to them,

But they prophesied.

22But if they had stood in My council,

Then they would have announced My words to My people,

And would have turned them back from their evil way

And from the evil of their deeds.

23“Am I a God who is near,” declares the Lord,

“And not a God far off?

24Can a man hide himself in hiding places

So I do not see him?” declares the Lord.

“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.

25“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’ 26How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart, 27who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? 28The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord. 29“Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? 30Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. 31Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares.’ 32Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the Lord, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord.

33“Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, ‘What is the oracle of the Lord?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ The Lord declares, ‘I will abandon you.’ 34Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of the Lord,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household. 35Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has the Lord answered?’ or, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 36For you will no longer remember the oracle of the Lord, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. 37Thus you will say to that prophet, ‘What has the Lord answered you?’ and, ‘What has the Lord spoken?’ 38For if you say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ surely thus says the Lord, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of the Lord!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of the Lord!’ ” ’ 39Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers. 40I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”

Healing the Lame Beggar

1Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer. 2And a man who had been lame from his mother’s womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple. 3When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms. 4But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, “Look at us!” 5And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!” 7And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened. 8With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9And all the people saw him walking and praising God; 10and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter’s Second Sermon

11While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. 12But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. 14But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. 16And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.

17“And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your rulers did also. 18But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 19Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; 20and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, 21whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time. 22Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren; to Him you shall give heed to everything He says to you. 23And it will be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ 24And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and his successors onward, also announced these days. 25It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ 26For you first, God raised up His Servant and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.”

1) How does Jeremiah contrast false shepherds with the promised righteous King who will truly lead יהוה’s people?

2) How does Peter’s message confirm that Yeshua is the prophet Moses foretold, sent to turn Israel from iniquity?

3) In what practical ways can you daily attune your heart to Yeshua’s voice so that His words continually shape your repentance and renewal?

Destruction of Jerusalem Impending

1“Flee for safety, O sons of Benjamin,

From the midst of Jerusalem!

Now blow a trumpet in Tekoa

And raise a signal over Beth-haccerem;

For evil looks down from the north,

And a great destruction.

2The comely and dainty one, the daughter of Zion, I will cut off.

3Shepherds and their flocks will come to her,

They will pitch their tents around her,

They will pasture each in his place.

4Prepare war against her;

Arise, and let us attack at noon.

Woe to us, for the day declines,

For the shadows of the evening lengthen!

5Arise, and let us attack by night

And destroy her palaces!”

6For thus says the Lord of hosts,

“Cut down her trees

And cast up a siege against Jerusalem.

This is the city to be punished,

In whose midst there is only oppression.

7As a well keeps its waters fresh,

So she keeps fresh her wickedness.

Violence and destruction are heard in her;

Sickness and wounds are ever before Me.

8Be warned, O Jerusalem,

Or I shall be alienated from you,

And make you a desolation,

A land not inhabited.”

9Thus says the Lord of hosts,

“They will thoroughly glean as the vine the remnant of Israel;

Pass your hand again like a grape gatherer

Over the branches.”

10To whom shall I speak and give warning

That they may hear?

Behold, their ears are closed

And they cannot listen.

Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them;

They have no delight in it.

11But I am full of the wrath of the Lord;

I am weary with holding it in.

“Pour it out on the children in the street

And on the gathering of young men together;

For both husband and wife shall be taken,

The aged and the very old.

12Their houses shall be turned over to others,

Their fields and their wives together;

For I will stretch out My hand

Against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord.

13“For from the least of them even to the greatest of them,

Everyone is greedy for gain,

And from the prophet even to the priest

Everyone deals falsely.

14They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially,

Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’

But there is no peace.

15Were they ashamed because of the abomination they have done?

They were not even ashamed at all;

They did not even know how to blush.

Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;

At the time that I punish them,

They shall be cast down,” says the Lord.

Peter Reports at Jerusalem

1Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him, 3saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” 4But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying, 5“I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came right down to me, 6and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air. 7I also heard a voice saying to me, ‘Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ 8But I said, ‘By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ 9But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’ 10This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky. 11And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. 12The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man’s house. 13And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here; 14and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ 15And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. 16And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” 18When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

The Church at Antioch

19So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone. 20But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord. 22The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch. 23Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord; 24for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord. 25And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul; 26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

27Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. 28One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world. And this took place in the reign of Claudius. 29And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea. 30And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.