East3B24.  Acts of the Apostles 3:13-15, 17-19.  “The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. Now I know, brothers, that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did.” Some refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah despite the fact that his miracles made it quite clear that he was the Messiah. “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.” (John 1:11)  As the parable of the seed said, the seed must fall on good ground to bear fruit.  Our hearts are open to the words of God only if we choose to thoroughly belong to God.  Jesus said to those who rejected him in John 8:47, “Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not listen, because you do not belong to God.”

Luke 24:35-48.  When Jesus first appeared to his Apostles, they “thought that they were seeing a ghost.”  To prove to them that he was not a ghost, Jesus ate “a piece of baked fish” “in front of them.” Then Jesus made it clear to them that “it is written (in the Old Testament) that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations.” The Christ is the Savior who saves us from our sins.  Sin is basically any rejection of God’s sovereignty over us, which then excludes us from God’s saving action.

1 John 2:1-5a.  “If anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.”  “He is expiation for our sins.”  By his suffering and death on the cross Jesus has made reparation for the offense of our sin.  Jesus repairs our relationship with God, returning us sinners into good stead with our Father.  “Whoever keeps his word,” which means is obedient to God’s Will, the love of God is truly perfected in him.”