Acts 3:21 - Exposition

Restoration for restitution, A.V.; whereof for which, A.V.; spake for hath spoken, A.V.; his for all his, A.V. and T.R. Whom the heaven must receive . This is clearly right, not as some render it, who must occupy heaven. The aorist δέξασθαι seems to point to the moment when, at the Ascension, he was carried up into heaven ( Luke 24:51 ). The restoration of all things ( ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων ). This must be the same operation as our Lord speaks of in Matthew 17:11 : "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things ( ἀποκαταστήσει πάντα ) ; " and from the words of Malachi ( Malachi 4:5 , Malachi 4:6 ) it would seem to be a moral or spiritual restoration preparatory to the coming of the Lord. If so, the time of restoration is not exactly synchronous with the times of refreshing, but preparatory to them; preparatory, too, to that restoration of the kingdom to Israel of which the apostles spake to the Lord ( Acts 1:6 ). Probably, however, St. Peter includes in his view the immediately following times of" the presence of the Lord," just as in St. Mark ( Mark 1:1 ) the preparatory mission of John the Baptist is included in the phrase, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Whereof God spake . The antecedent to "whereof" is "the times" (verse 24).