Peter’s sermon is rich with both Old Testament prophecies and historical facts which serve proof that Jesus of Nazareth is unquestionably Christ the Lord.
Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is Episode 5 in our Acts Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled, Preaching Christ Crucified and Risen According to Scripture, where we’ll discuss Acts 2:22-36. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we have the privilege today of walking through one of the greatest sermons that’s ever been preached in church history, the great Pentecost sermon by the apostle Peter. We’re going to see him giving us a clear example of how to weave in Old Testament prophecies with very convicting words. He’s able to cut people to the heart concerning their sins, but he’s also able to marshal evidence of Jesus’s life, his miraculous life, and his death and his resurrection. He gives us an incredible example that we can use not just in preaching because most of us aren’t preachers, but in proclaiming the gospel to lost people. It’s going to be an exciting study today.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read beginning in verse 22.
“Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore, my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”‘ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Up to this point, Peter’s not mentioned Jesus Christ at all. What’s the connection between verse 21 where we concluded last week and verse 22?
Andy
Well, everyone who calls him the name of the Lord will be saved, so that’s the Lord Jesus, so absolutely there’s a strong connection. The Lord is Jesus. He’s very plain about this, this Jesus of Nazareth and off we go. It’s interesting he uses that term Jesus of Nazareth. The one who was raised in the despised town of Nazareth in the despised region of Galilee, this Jesus of Nazareth is the very one who is proclaimed, he says, “Both Lord and Christ,” at the end. It’s interesting, liberal theology makes a distinction between the historical Jesus and the Jesus of myth, let’s say, or the Jesus of religion. Jesus Christ is an assumption made by believers that he’s the anointed one, et cetera, Jesus of Nazareth is the historical figure. Peter uses both terms to talk about the same man. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He is Jesus Christ. That’s the connection. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. He goes off and gives the basis by which we can call on the name of the Lord.
Wes
Along with this reference to Jesus as Jesus of Nazareth, what other historical facts does Peter cite in the case that he’s making in verses 22 through 24?
Andy
All right, so first of all, he says, “He was a man,” he’s human, “But He was accredited by God to you.” What’s your translation say then, verse 22?
Wes
“Attested to you by God.”
Andy
Attested to, accredited to, God testified concerning him. This is very strongly asserted by Jesus in John 5 where he talks about testimonies given, John the Baptist gave a testimony, but God did himself.
Wes
Hm.
Andy
He did it at baptism when he said, “This is my Son whom I love, with him I’m well pleased.” God spoke from heaven. But also he testified to Jesus or Jesus was accredited by God, by his signs and wonders. Again, Jesus mentions this in John 5:36, “The very works the Father has given me to do, which I am doing, testify concerning me.” It worked this way. John 9, the man born blind, Jesus spits, makes mud, puts some on the man’s eyes, a man goes away to the pool named Siloam, he washes off, and his eyes are open. He can see.
Wes
Mm-hmm.
Andy
Then the guy gets hauled up in front of the Jewish police, effectively, the religious police, the Pharisees, and they’re grilling him about his healing. They’re saying, “We don’t know. We know that God spoke through Moses. We don’t know where this man came from.”
The blind man, the man who had been blind, said, “Now that is remarkable. You don’t know where he came from and yet he opened my eyes. How can that be?” It’s so obvious He came from God. “If he were not from God, he could do nothing.” That’s one healing. Jesus did thousands of healings.
“He was a man accredited by God by signs, wonders, miracles, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” It was a river of miracles. Keep in mind that huge populations, the whole city of Jerusalem went out to Jesus, and he healed them all. Every disease and sickness; one preacher says that Jesus effectively banished illness and disease and demon possession from Palestine for a three-year period. That may be an overstatement, but it’s not far from that. Huge numbers of people were healed by Jesus.
He’s saying, “Look,” in verse 22, “You yourselves know you were among those perhaps who were healed.” Parenthetically, just because you are physically healed by Jesus doesn’t mean that you are converted.
Didn’t mean that you necessarily believe that Jesus was the Son of God. This is an audience ripe and ready to be ignited by the Holy Spirit into faith in Christ. The evidence for Jesus’s status as truly the son of God were his miracles.
Parenthetically, I want to say this. When we share the gospel, we need to have memorized some miracle stories. Probably one of my favorite ones is the one of the four friends that bring a paralyzed man to Jesus and they dig through a roof and they lower the man down right in front of Jesus. Jesus says to this man when he saw their faith, “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:20).
Then people said, “He’s blaspheming.”
Jesus said, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,” or to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Rise and walk?’ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralyzed man, ‘Get up, take your mat, and go home'” (Luke 5:23-24). And he did.
Wes
Wow.
Andy
I love that miracle story because it links Jesus’s wonder-working power to the ability to forgive sin. He was a man accredited by God, by signs, wonders, miracles, which God did among you, as you yourselves know.
Wes
The function of these miracles then was to testify that Jesus was who he claimed to be.
Andy
Yeah, they are a valid basis of faith. Jesus said, “Believe on the evidence of the miracles.” He said that in John 14, go ahead.
Wes
Who did the miracles according to Peter’s phraseology though in 22, this is a bit interesting.
Andy
Yeah, God did them.
God did them through Jesus and he’s going to say when he preaches to Cornelius later in Acts 10, I think, he says, let me look up … He says, Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how he went around doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil because God was with him.” Jesus did all his miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was a triune work, Father, Son, and Spirit working together to do the miracles.
Wes
You mentioned this a moment ago. Peter appeals directly to their personal experience of Jesus’s miracles in this same verse, and you think their personal experience with Christ made them more ready to repent and believe in his name on that day?
Andy
Absolutely. You see what’s going on there, not only is Jesus’s status as the Son of God and as Messiah being established, but he had tremendous compassion on people. He just loved them. He was kind to them. He’s moved with compassion to the leper and says, “I am willing, be cleaned” (Matthew 8:3). He has a lot of tenderness and compassion.
You think about the woman, the older woman, who’s doubled over with some of kind of malady where she can’t straighten up, almost some kind of paralysis or something wrong with her spine. Jesus says that “Satan kept her bound all this time, should she not have been released? If one of your animals is tangled up in a net or caught somewhere, you’ll do it, whatever you can, even on the Sabbath to release it, should not this woman who’s a daughter of Abraham be set free” (Luke 13:15-16 paraphrase)? He had a tremendous, it wasn’t just his miracles, it was the way he loved people. It was the tenderness and compassion he showed. Yeah, Peter is absolutely saying, “As you yourselves know.”
To some degree I would say all conversions are Jesus’s conversions. He converts everyone, but these are especially Jesus’s conversions. They are the fruit of his physical ministry on earth, which was very circumscribed. He just was sent to the Jews, the lost sheep of Israel. He barely did any miracle for Gentiles. A couple here and there, to the Roman centurion’s servant, Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, a few, but he mostly focused on the Jews, and this is his harvest.
Wes
Wow. Now verse 23 has immense theological significance.
Andy
Yes, it does.
Wes
What was the ultimate cause of Christ being delivered up to death? How should we think about who really handed Jesus over to be crucified? How does Peter’s statement in this verse help explain that?
Andy
Right, some of the verbiage that we see in other passages is interesting. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). It’s the idea of the giving up of Jesus. Who gave Jesus up to death? Well, that’s an interesting question. The Father did right here in the text, “He was handed over to you by God, by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.” God gave him up in Romans 8. He says, “God gave him up for us all.” But we also know that Judas Iscariot gave him up to his enemies; he betrayed him to his enemies. We know that Annas and Caiaphas gave him up to Pilate to be condemned. We know that Pilate gave him up to the Roman soldiers to be killed, and Satan was active as well because Satan put it in Judas to do it. All of those actors are at work, and God’s purpose is different than Judas’s purpose is different than Annas and Caiaphas’s purpose is different than Pilate’s purpose. All of them had different motives, and they’ll all be judged for their motives. But the ultimate plan came from God. The language here is that “Jesus was handed over,” it says, “To you.”
Now, it’s interesting there, the crowd handed Jesus over too because they shouted, “Crucify, crucify,” remember. “He was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.” God has an intention or purpose. What does your translation say there in verse 23?
Wes
“The definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”
Andy
Yeah, this is not some accident, and he’s going to definitely say this in Acts 4:23-24 (paraphrase) as well. “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people. They said, ‘Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the Earth,'” and et cetera. “Then Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this holy city, to conspire against your holy servant Jesus. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen” (Acts 4:27-28, paraphrase).
Foreknowledge isn’t just that God was aware it was going to happen. …It was his choice. This is the sovereignty of God and the death of Jesus.
Here’s the thing. The plan was made by God before the foundation of the world. The Book of Revelation says that “Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8, paraphrase). What that means, it was a done deal. It was set. It was God’s determined purpose and his foreknowledge. Foreknowledge isn’t just that God was aware it was going to happen. It was that he had decided that it would happen. It was his choice. This is the sovereignty of God and the death of Jesus.
Wes
Wow. There’s so much for us to unpack in just this one verse, thinking about just the implications of God’s plan and his will for the world. How does Peter’s charge also teach human responsibility in the death of Christ? Does Peter believe that these Jews were responsible and guilty for the death of Jesus?
Andy
Absolutely.
Wes
Yeah.
Andy
Absolutely. He says, “You, with the help of wicked men or lawless men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). At the human level, it is the greatest crime that has ever occurred. The reason I say that is because of the absolute complete purity of Jesus. Jesus was sinless. He’s the only one ever put to death who was sinless. You think of it that way, it was an absolute travesty of justice. Pilate said again and again, “I find no charge against him. He’s done nothing wrong.” They definitely are guilty for what they did. It was a sin to kill him, but yet it was God’s set purpose and foreknowledge. What we have to do is we have to say, “You’ve got divine sovereignty, human responsibility, people are responsible.”
Again, you have to look the motive. What is the motive? What was the motive of the crowd? What was the motive of the chief priests and the teachers of the law that stirred the crowd up?
Pilate says, “It was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over.” It says that in Mark’s gospel. It was envy. They were motivated by envy and also a zeal to maintain their position and not lose their position if the Romans came in. Everyone had different motives. Pilate’s motive was he wanted to keep his position because they were going to go over his head and tell Caesar. He was afraid of what the crowd would do, and he just wanted to be done with the problem, so he just gets rid of you, he washes his hands of it. Everyone had different motives and they will be judged for their motives, but God’s plan was to save the world.
Wes
Yeah, it’s this incredible intersection as you mentioned, of divine sovereignty and human responsibility where God is going to accomplish his purposes even in the face of what seems like something that would be at cross purposes with his intention. But all the while working this out according to his plan.
Andy
Yeah, it’s amazing because it’s a direct violation of the 10 Commandments. You shall not murder and yet they murdered him. They violate the 10 Commandments and in so doing save, for the elect anyway, saved themselves from their sins.
I think the actual team, the centurion and his team that nailed Jesus to the cross, I think that’s who Jesus had in mind when he said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” He wasn’t speaking about Annas and Caiaphas. He was not speaking about Pilate and all that. I’m just saying the centurion. I think the evidence of that is when the centurion saw how he died, he said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). I fully expect the centurion and his team to be in heaven. They nailed Jesus to the cross and in so doing saved their own souls.
Wes
Wow. Wow. In the next verse, Peter turns from Christ’s death on the cross to his resurrection. How important is the resurrection in the apostolic preaching of the gospel? How should this inform our preaching and evangelism?
Andy
Yeah, we’re going to see in the Book of Acts, they almost pretty much never fail to mention the resurrection. They do it every time. It’s interesting, they don’t always mention the crucifixion. They don’t always go into substitutionary atonement, but they always mention the resurrection. It is just the great evidence and proof of the truth of Christianity. He is the only religious leader that was raised from the dead and so it’s just an astonishing thing. But here it says, “You put him to death, but God raised him from that.” That’s one of these great, “But God” statements in the Bible. “You killed him, but God raised him from the dead.” Again, this is the activity of Almighty God. It was God that raised him.
Now also, we need to see the activity of the Trinity. Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me, but I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back up again” (John 10:18). Jesus is saying, “I raised myself,” but then he said, “This command I received from the Father.” Jesus has power and we also know from Romans 1, it was by the Spirit of holiness that God raised him from the dead. Really no action happens on earth apart from the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.
Wes
Now, for us, it’s impossible to escape the hold of death in our own strength. How does Peter describe the resurrection and what implications does that have for those who would trust in Christ?
Andy
Yeah, he says here, “God raised him from the dead,” in my translation, “Freeing him from the agony of death.” What do you have there?
Wes
“Loosing the pangs of death.”
Andy
The pangs of death, so death is a painful thing and agony, there’s an agony to it. Then I just love this statement. “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” That’s just omnipotence. Death cannot hold him. The opposite is exactly true for us. We are powerless against death. We can do nothing to defeat death. We live in one of, you could call it, one of the cities of medicine. It’s not the only city of medicine. My hometown, Boston and Cambridge, there’s a lot of research hospitals there, and there’s an awful lot of pharmaceutical companies in eastern Massachusetts. But here in the Triangle, in Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill area, there’s a lot of pharmaceutical research, a lot of medical research. There are some great research hospitals here. It doesn’t matter what they’re going to come up with, they will never abolish death. Death is the last enemy. Death will be with us to the end. It’s impossible for us to defeat death. But the opposite is true of Jesus. It’s impossible for death to defeat Jesus.
Wes
Mm. Now in the following verses, Peter turns to this quotation of Psalm 16 that we mentioned last time we were together. How does Psalm 16 function in Peter’s sermon and how do these verses help explain Christ’s attitude of joy in Hebrews 12?
Andy
Well, let’s go to the key issue in Psalm 16. There’s a lot of poetical, flowery language about relationship. “The Lord is at my right hand.” There’s intimacy, there’s friendship, there’s connection, there’s love, all of that, there’s a delight in it. But bottom line is you will not let your holy one see decay, all right? The idea is decay and Peter’s going to zero in on the issue of decay.
Now we know this just from life, living things as soon as they die begin to be corrupted, they begin to stink. Meat for example, begins to stink. Maybe you’ve had that experience of let’s say a chicken wrapper, that little spongy stuff underneath the chicken, some chicken breasts and it’s a hot August heatwave and you forget and put it in your kitchen trash can. You’re gone for a day or so and come back and oh my goodness, there’s just this aroma.
Wes
Mm-hmm, yes.
Andy
We know from John 11, Martha is very concerned about moving the stone back because Jesus (Lazarus) has been there four days. It’s exactly the wrong time to be moving the stone. If you moved it back in four years, it’d be fine. The bones would be dry. But while there’s still moisture, there’s bacterial growth and it’s going to be disgusting. There’s a terrible odor, there’s a stench. But the fundamental prophecy here is of someone who dies but doesn’t decay and who also is raised from the dead. “My body will live in hope.” This is a clear prediction of bodily resurrection from the dead. This is vital. He’s quoting Psalm 16 because it’s a clear prediction that the Messiah would be raised physically from the dead. Now, Peter’s going to do some very accurate exegetical work here saying, “It isn’t David,” he’s talking about here. We’ll get to that in a minute, that’s vital. But the fundamental prophecy here is that the Messiah would be raised physically from the dead.
Wes
Now, how does Peter say David knew what would happen in the future and what particularly did David see about the Christ in the future?
Andy
Well, he says, “Look, we’re going to zero in on David. David wrote the prophecy.” He calls him, “Patriarch, a patriarch, David,” so that’s a father ruler. David, he died and was buried. Though Peter doesn’t say it, you know what happened after he was buried, his body decayed, the very thing we had just said. David was not speaking about himself, couldn’t have been. So, we’ll get to that in a minute. But he said, “But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.” 2 Samuel 7, that’s the Davidic covenant.
“When your days are over and you sleep with your fathers, I’ll place one of your own sons on your throne and he will reign on your throne” (2 Samuel 7:12-15, paraphrase). It’s an immediate fulfillment and then an eternal fulfillment. He will have one of his physical sons who will immediately succeed him, Solomon.
When Samuel gives this prediction, not Samuel, Nathan, I think, gives this prediction in 2 Samuel 7, he says, “When he sins, I will chastise him, but I will never take my love from him.”
Therefore, you have this Davidic lineage, a physical descendant of David who would sit on the throne forever. The immediate fulfillments were a lineage, genealogy of Davidic sons. Some of them were godly, most of them weren’t, most of them were sinners, wicked. But God kept the line going until the Davidic son, the Son of David, came to fulfill. He knew, David did, that God had told him that one of his sons would sit on a throne and reign for and ever.
Parenthetically, the first thing we learn about Jesus is that he’s the Son of David, the first thing in the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. The first thing we learned is that he’s the Christ, but also he’s the Son of David, that’s one and the same thing. He is the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of David.
Now he says, “Look, David was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne, seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay” (Acts 2:30-31). That is prophetic vision, the ability to see.
Now you look at Isaiah 1:1 and it says, “The vision that Isaiah, the prophet saw concerning Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,” all these different realms that Isaiah predicted, it’s a vision that he saw. David was a prophet, and he had a prophetic vision by the power of the Holy Spirit. He saw what was to come, and God moved him to write Psalm 16. He’s writing these words, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay.” He’s writing these words, but it’s not about him.
There is no one other than Jesus who died and who was raised to live forever and never see decay.
Now, Old Testament scholars and people that teach Old Testament exegesis talk about the author’s original intent and the immediate fulfillments and all that. Look, the author wasn’t writing about himself. There was no immediate fulfillment. There is no one other than Jesus who died and who was raised to live forever and never see decay. Lazarus didn’t decay, I guess, in that four-day period, but he decayed later.
Wes
Yeah.
Andy
But Jesus alone. This is prophetic scripture. It was speaking of the Messiah that he would be raised physically from the dead.
Wes
Andy, before we move on to close, looking at a few questions from verses 32-36, anything else we need to say about Psalm 16?
Andy
Yeah, Psalm 16 is magnificent. I love the end of it. Here it’s quoted in verse 28, “You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence,” and Psalm 16 goes on, “Eternal pleasures at your right hand.” That’s heaven.
Wes
Yeah.
Andy
That’s what Jesus has won for us. That’s what, Wes, you and I are looking forward to that. We’re going to go to a place of eternal pleasure. It’s at God’s right hand. It’s the pleasure of God himself, of the beauty of God, and the holiness of God, and the glory of God. That’s where we’re going, and Jesus led the way. He is our pioneer, our captain, and he’s bringing us into the very presence of God by his resurrection. That’s what I look forward to. Psalm 16 is magnificent.
Wes
Absolutely. How does verse 32 fit into Peter’s message to Israel?
Andy
Well, it’s historical fulfillment. You have the prophecy, and every generation from David to Jesus had the prophecy, but now it’s been fulfilled. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we’re witnesses. We saw him die and we’ve put our fingers, if need be, in the nail marks and our hands on the side. We’ve touched him and seen flesh and blood. “Spirits do not have flesh and blood as you see I have.” He wasn’t an apparition; he wasn’t a ghost. He was bodily raised from the dead and we are eyewitnesses. We’re standing in front of you telling you, “We have seen Jesus raised from the dead.” Witnesses, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are witnesses of the fact. What verse 32 is is the historical fulfillment. That’s what we have also in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, now here in Acts as well. We have the testimony that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Wes
What’s the theological significance of Peter’s claim that Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God? What’s the warning implicit in Psalm 110:1 quoted in these verses?
Andy
Yeah, so that’s where he gets it, Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand,'” so he has exalted to the right hand of God. This is mentioned five or six times in the New Testament. This is a very significant theme. The author to Hebrews talks about this, Jesus at the right hand of God. It’s a position of absolute honor. It’s Jesus. Because in Philippians 2, because he was willing to become a servant and die, even to the point of death on a cross, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. It’s a name of absolute honor. “Sit at my right hand, a place of honor.”
He, from the right hand of God, is able to get the gift of the Holy Spirit, so interceding on behalf of his redeemed, who he has now shed his blood for, he is able to win the gift that he’s now pouring out on them, the Holy Spirit. Exalted to the right hand of God he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. The outpouring of the Spirit came because Jesus rose from the dead and is our mediator interceding on our behalf at the right hand of God.
Now, concerning the right hand of God and the rest of Psalm 110, there’s an implicit threat, similar to Psalm 2. The implicit threat is, “If you oppose the Son of God, if you oppose this Son of David, you’re going to get destroyed. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
Now here’s the thing, and this can easily move me to emotion if I’m not careful, and then I’ll choke up and it’ll be hard for me to talk. It is impossible for us properly to measure the zeal God the Father has to exalt Jesus to the ends of the earth. He, the beloved Son, obeyed the Father even to the point of pouring out his death under the wrath of God on the cross. His work’s finished, finished. “Sit at my right hand. Now watch what I’ll do. I’m going to make your enemies worship you. I’ll convert them. I’ll take out the heart of stone and they were former enemies, they’ll become your children or I’m going to crush them.”
There’s no other option. He’s either going to convert you or crush you. You’re talking about Almighty God. We’re talking about the omnipotent God of the universe. Imagine having a God like that as your enemy and imagine thinking you can bypass Jesus. I could think about pious Jews who deny that Jesus is the Messiah. You cannot delight in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not delight in his Son. God will crush you. The fact of the matter is you have to honor the Son. You have to kiss the Son like Psalm 2 says. You better watch out or his wrath can flare in a moment. That’s Psalm 2, there’s an implicit warning there. If you don’t love the Son and delight in him and submit to his kingly rule, he’ll crush you. God will. It’s brighter and hotter than the sun, the zeal that the Father has when he says, “Sit at my right hand and I’m going to make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” It’s a warning and it’s powerful from Almighty God.
Wes
What’s the significance of Peter concluding his sermon calling Jesus both Lord and Christ? What final thoughts do you have for us on these verses?
Andy
Well, he doesn’t expand on it here, but Jesus did. Both Lord and Christ. The Jews were expecting a Christ, they weren’t expecting him to be the Lord. The incarnation, the fact that Almighty God became man and the Son of David and the Son of God at the same time, they didn’t see that coming. Now they could have in the Son of Man vision, but they weren’t ready for it.
Jesus said, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “Son of David,” they said. “How is it then that David speaking by the Spirit calls him Lord? For he says,” Psalm 110 quoted right here, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”‘
If then David calls him, Lord, how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply and from that day on, no one dared to ask him any more questions (Matthew 22:41-46).
They’d never seen it. It’s right there. “‘The Lord said to my Lord,” I want you to know. “Therefore,'” verse 36, “‘Let all Israel be assured of this, God, Almighty God, has made this Jesus, whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.'” He is Lord and he is Christ.
Wes
Andy, any final thoughts for us?
Andy
Well, I’ll go back to verse 21, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” There’s nothing more important than that. I believe that that’s something that we do once for all time. The moment we call on him in truth and in faith, we are saved from our sins. We are saved from the wrath of God that we deserve, but we also continue to call, and we receive a continual salvation and sanctification. We keep calling on the name of the Lord, we keep crying out to Jesus, and we are continually saved from indwelling sin and from all that sin can do.
I would urge all of our hearers, if you’ve never trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, call on the name of the Lord Jesus. God sent him to die for us, but also raised him from the dead, clear evidence in Psalm 16, he predicted that it would happen. Then the fulfillment of the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, now here in Acts as well, clear testimony that eyewitnesses saw Jesus raised from the dead. Call on him. Now, if you’ve been a Christian for 20, 30, 40 years, keep calling on the name of the Lord. Let him keep working his salvation out in your soul by sanctification.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 5 in our Acts Bible Study podcast and we want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 6 entitled, The First Fruits and the Early Church, where we’ll discuss Acts 2:37-47. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
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Wes
Welcome to the Two Journeys Bible Study podcast. This podcast is just one of the many resources available to you for free from Two Journeys Ministry. If you’re interested in learning more, just head over to twojourneys.org. Now on to today’s episode.
This is Episode 5 in our Acts Bible Study podcast. This episode is entitled, Preaching Christ Crucified and Risen According to Scripture, where we’ll discuss Acts 2:22-36. I’m Wes Treadway and I’m here with Pastor Andy Davis.
Andy, what are we going to see in these verses we’re looking at today?
Andy
Well, we have the privilege today of walking through one of the greatest sermons that’s ever been preached in church history, the great Pentecost sermon by the apostle Peter. We’re going to see him giving us a clear example of how to weave in Old Testament prophecies with very convicting words. He’s able to cut people to the heart concerning their sins, but he’s also able to marshal evidence of Jesus’s life, his miraculous life, and his death and his resurrection. He gives us an incredible example that we can use not just in preaching because most of us aren’t preachers, but in proclaiming the gospel to lost people. It’s going to be an exciting study today.
Wes
Well, let me go ahead and read beginning in verse 22.
“Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore, my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”‘ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Up to this point, Peter’s not mentioned Jesus Christ at all. What’s the connection between verse 21 where we concluded last week and verse 22?
Andy
Well, everyone who calls him the name of the Lord will be saved, so that’s the Lord Jesus, so absolutely there’s a strong connection. The Lord is Jesus. He’s very plain about this, this Jesus of Nazareth and off we go. It’s interesting he uses that term Jesus of Nazareth. The one who was raised in the despised town of Nazareth in the despised region of Galilee, this Jesus of Nazareth is the very one who is proclaimed, he says, “Both Lord and Christ,” at the end. It’s interesting, liberal theology makes a distinction between the historical Jesus and the Jesus of myth, let’s say, or the Jesus of religion. Jesus Christ is an assumption made by believers that he’s the anointed one, et cetera, Jesus of Nazareth is the historical figure. Peter uses both terms to talk about the same man. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He is Jesus Christ. That’s the connection. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved. He goes off and gives the basis by which we can call on the name of the Lord.
Wes
Along with this reference to Jesus as Jesus of Nazareth, what other historical facts does Peter cite in the case that he’s making in verses 22 through 24?
Andy
All right, so first of all, he says, “He was a man,” he’s human, “But He was accredited by God to you.” What’s your translation say then, verse 22?
Wes
“Attested to you by God.”
Andy
Attested to, accredited to, God testified concerning him. This is very strongly asserted by Jesus in John 5 where he talks about testimonies given, John the Baptist gave a testimony, but God did himself.
Wes
Hm.
Andy
He did it at baptism when he said, “This is my Son whom I love, with him I’m well pleased.” God spoke from heaven. But also he testified to Jesus or Jesus was accredited by God, by his signs and wonders. Again, Jesus mentions this in John 5:36, “The very works the Father has given me to do, which I am doing, testify concerning me.” It worked this way. John 9, the man born blind, Jesus spits, makes mud, puts some on the man’s eyes, a man goes away to the pool named Siloam, he washes off, and his eyes are open. He can see.
Wes
Mm-hmm.
Andy
Then the guy gets hauled up in front of the Jewish police, effectively, the religious police, the Pharisees, and they’re grilling him about his healing. They’re saying, “We don’t know. We know that God spoke through Moses. We don’t know where this man came from.”
The blind man, the man who had been blind, said, “Now that is remarkable. You don’t know where he came from and yet he opened my eyes. How can that be?” It’s so obvious He came from God. “If he were not from God, he could do nothing.” That’s one healing. Jesus did thousands of healings.
“He was a man accredited by God by signs, wonders, miracles, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.” It was a river of miracles. Keep in mind that huge populations, the whole city of Jerusalem went out to Jesus, and he healed them all. Every disease and sickness; one preacher says that Jesus effectively banished illness and disease and demon possession from Palestine for a three-year period. That may be an overstatement, but it’s not far from that. Huge numbers of people were healed by Jesus.
He’s saying, “Look,” in verse 22, “You yourselves know you were among those perhaps who were healed.” Parenthetically, just because you are physically healed by Jesus doesn’t mean that you are converted.
Didn’t mean that you necessarily believe that Jesus was the Son of God. This is an audience ripe and ready to be ignited by the Holy Spirit into faith in Christ. The evidence for Jesus’s status as truly the son of God were his miracles.
Parenthetically, I want to say this. When we share the gospel, we need to have memorized some miracle stories. Probably one of my favorite ones is the one of the four friends that bring a paralyzed man to Jesus and they dig through a roof and they lower the man down right in front of Jesus. Jesus says to this man when he saw their faith, “Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven” (Luke 5:20).
Then people said, “He’s blaspheming.”
Jesus said, “Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,” or to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Rise and walk?’ But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralyzed man, ‘Get up, take your mat, and go home'” (Luke 5:23-24). And he did.
Wes
Wow.
Andy
I love that miracle story because it links Jesus’s wonder-working power to the ability to forgive sin. He was a man accredited by God, by signs, wonders, miracles, which God did among you, as you yourselves know.
Wes
The function of these miracles then was to testify that Jesus was who he claimed to be.
Andy
Yeah, they are a valid basis of faith. Jesus said, “Believe on the evidence of the miracles.” He said that in John 14, go ahead.
Wes
Who did the miracles according to Peter’s phraseology though in 22, this is a bit interesting.
Andy
Yeah, God did them.
God did them through Jesus and he’s going to say when he preaches to Cornelius later in Acts 10, I think, he says, let me look up … He says, Acts 10:38, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how he went around doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil because God was with him.” Jesus did all his miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. It was a triune work, Father, Son, and Spirit working together to do the miracles.
Wes
You mentioned this a moment ago. Peter appeals directly to their personal experience of Jesus’s miracles in this same verse, and you think their personal experience with Christ made them more ready to repent and believe in his name on that day?
Andy
Absolutely. You see what’s going on there, not only is Jesus’s status as the Son of God and as Messiah being established, but he had tremendous compassion on people. He just loved them. He was kind to them. He’s moved with compassion to the leper and says, “I am willing, be cleaned” (Matthew 8:3). He has a lot of tenderness and compassion.
You think about the woman, the older woman, who’s doubled over with some of kind of malady where she can’t straighten up, almost some kind of paralysis or something wrong with her spine. Jesus says that “Satan kept her bound all this time, should she not have been released? If one of your animals is tangled up in a net or caught somewhere, you’ll do it, whatever you can, even on the Sabbath to release it, should not this woman who’s a daughter of Abraham be set free” (Luke 13:15-16 paraphrase)? He had a tremendous, it wasn’t just his miracles, it was the way he loved people. It was the tenderness and compassion he showed. Yeah, Peter is absolutely saying, “As you yourselves know.”
To some degree I would say all conversions are Jesus’s conversions. He converts everyone, but these are especially Jesus’s conversions. They are the fruit of his physical ministry on earth, which was very circumscribed. He just was sent to the Jews, the lost sheep of Israel. He barely did any miracle for Gentiles. A couple here and there, to the Roman centurion’s servant, Syrophoenician woman’s daughter, a few, but he mostly focused on the Jews, and this is his harvest.
Wes
Wow. Now verse 23 has immense theological significance.
Andy
Yes, it does.
Wes
What was the ultimate cause of Christ being delivered up to death? How should we think about who really handed Jesus over to be crucified? How does Peter’s statement in this verse help explain that?
Andy
Right, some of the verbiage that we see in other passages is interesting. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). It’s the idea of the giving up of Jesus. Who gave Jesus up to death? Well, that’s an interesting question. The Father did right here in the text, “He was handed over to you by God, by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.” God gave him up in Romans 8. He says, “God gave him up for us all.” But we also know that Judas Iscariot gave him up to his enemies; he betrayed him to his enemies. We know that Annas and Caiaphas gave him up to Pilate to be condemned. We know that Pilate gave him up to the Roman soldiers to be killed, and Satan was active as well because Satan put it in Judas to do it. All of those actors are at work, and God’s purpose is different than Judas’s purpose is different than Annas and Caiaphas’s purpose is different than Pilate’s purpose. All of them had different motives, and they’ll all be judged for their motives. But the ultimate plan came from God. The language here is that “Jesus was handed over,” it says, “To you.”
Now, it’s interesting there, the crowd handed Jesus over too because they shouted, “Crucify, crucify,” remember. “He was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge.” God has an intention or purpose. What does your translation say there in verse 23?
Wes
“The definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”
Andy
Yeah, this is not some accident, and he’s going to definitely say this in Acts 4:23-24 (paraphrase) as well. “On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people. They said, ‘Sovereign Lord, you made the heavens and the Earth,'” and et cetera. “Then Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this holy city, to conspire against your holy servant Jesus. They did what your power and will had determined beforehand should happen” (Acts 4:27-28, paraphrase).
Foreknowledge isn’t just that God was aware it was going to happen. …It was his choice. This is the sovereignty of God and the death of Jesus.
Here’s the thing. The plan was made by God before the foundation of the world. The Book of Revelation says that “Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8, paraphrase). What that means, it was a done deal. It was set. It was God’s determined purpose and his foreknowledge. Foreknowledge isn’t just that God was aware it was going to happen. It was that he had decided that it would happen. It was his choice. This is the sovereignty of God and the death of Jesus.
Wes
Wow. There’s so much for us to unpack in just this one verse, thinking about just the implications of God’s plan and his will for the world. How does Peter’s charge also teach human responsibility in the death of Christ? Does Peter believe that these Jews were responsible and guilty for the death of Jesus?
Andy
Absolutely.
Wes
Yeah.
Andy
Absolutely. He says, “You, with the help of wicked men or lawless men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). At the human level, it is the greatest crime that has ever occurred. The reason I say that is because of the absolute complete purity of Jesus. Jesus was sinless. He’s the only one ever put to death who was sinless. You think of it that way, it was an absolute travesty of justice. Pilate said again and again, “I find no charge against him. He’s done nothing wrong.” They definitely are guilty for what they did. It was a sin to kill him, but yet it was God’s set purpose and foreknowledge. What we have to do is we have to say, “You’ve got divine sovereignty, human responsibility, people are responsible.”
Again, you have to look the motive. What is the motive? What was the motive of the crowd? What was the motive of the chief priests and the teachers of the law that stirred the crowd up?
Pilate says, “It was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over.” It says that in Mark’s gospel. It was envy. They were motivated by envy and also a zeal to maintain their position and not lose their position if the Romans came in. Everyone had different motives. Pilate’s motive was he wanted to keep his position because they were going to go over his head and tell Caesar. He was afraid of what the crowd would do, and he just wanted to be done with the problem, so he just gets rid of you, he washes his hands of it. Everyone had different motives and they will be judged for their motives, but God’s plan was to save the world.
Wes
Yeah, it’s this incredible intersection as you mentioned, of divine sovereignty and human responsibility where God is going to accomplish his purposes even in the face of what seems like something that would be at cross purposes with his intention. But all the while working this out according to his plan.
Andy
Yeah, it’s amazing because it’s a direct violation of the 10 Commandments. You shall not murder and yet they murdered him. They violate the 10 Commandments and in so doing save, for the elect anyway, saved themselves from their sins.
I think the actual team, the centurion and his team that nailed Jesus to the cross, I think that’s who Jesus had in mind when he said, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.” He wasn’t speaking about Annas and Caiaphas. He was not speaking about Pilate and all that. I’m just saying the centurion. I think the evidence of that is when the centurion saw how he died, he said, “Truly, this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). I fully expect the centurion and his team to be in heaven. They nailed Jesus to the cross and in so doing saved their own souls.
Wes
Wow. Wow. In the next verse, Peter turns from Christ’s death on the cross to his resurrection. How important is the resurrection in the apostolic preaching of the gospel? How should this inform our preaching and evangelism?
Andy
Yeah, we’re going to see in the Book of Acts, they almost pretty much never fail to mention the resurrection. They do it every time. It’s interesting, they don’t always mention the crucifixion. They don’t always go into substitutionary atonement, but they always mention the resurrection. It is just the great evidence and proof of the truth of Christianity. He is the only religious leader that was raised from the dead and so it’s just an astonishing thing. But here it says, “You put him to death, but God raised him from that.” That’s one of these great, “But God” statements in the Bible. “You killed him, but God raised him from the dead.” Again, this is the activity of Almighty God. It was God that raised him.
Now also, we need to see the activity of the Trinity. Jesus said, “No one takes my life from me, but I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it back up again” (John 10:18). Jesus is saying, “I raised myself,” but then he said, “This command I received from the Father.” Jesus has power and we also know from Romans 1, it was by the Spirit of holiness that God raised him from the dead. Really no action happens on earth apart from the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.
Wes
Now, for us, it’s impossible to escape the hold of death in our own strength. How does Peter describe the resurrection and what implications does that have for those who would trust in Christ?
Andy
Yeah, he says here, “God raised him from the dead,” in my translation, “Freeing him from the agony of death.” What do you have there?
Wes
“Loosing the pangs of death.”
Andy
The pangs of death, so death is a painful thing and agony, there’s an agony to it. Then I just love this statement. “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” That’s just omnipotence. Death cannot hold him. The opposite is exactly true for us. We are powerless against death. We can do nothing to defeat death. We live in one of, you could call it, one of the cities of medicine. It’s not the only city of medicine. My hometown, Boston and Cambridge, there’s a lot of research hospitals there, and there’s an awful lot of pharmaceutical companies in eastern Massachusetts. But here in the Triangle, in Raleigh-Durham, Chapel Hill area, there’s a lot of pharmaceutical research, a lot of medical research. There are some great research hospitals here. It doesn’t matter what they’re going to come up with, they will never abolish death. Death is the last enemy. Death will be with us to the end. It’s impossible for us to defeat death. But the opposite is true of Jesus. It’s impossible for death to defeat Jesus.
Wes
Mm. Now in the following verses, Peter turns to this quotation of Psalm 16 that we mentioned last time we were together. How does Psalm 16 function in Peter’s sermon and how do these verses help explain Christ’s attitude of joy in Hebrews 12?
Andy
Well, let’s go to the key issue in Psalm 16. There’s a lot of poetical, flowery language about relationship. “The Lord is at my right hand.” There’s intimacy, there’s friendship, there’s connection, there’s love, all of that, there’s a delight in it. But bottom line is you will not let your holy one see decay, all right? The idea is decay and Peter’s going to zero in on the issue of decay.
Now we know this just from life, living things as soon as they die begin to be corrupted, they begin to stink. Meat for example, begins to stink. Maybe you’ve had that experience of let’s say a chicken wrapper, that little spongy stuff underneath the chicken, some chicken breasts and it’s a hot August heatwave and you forget and put it in your kitchen trash can. You’re gone for a day or so and come back and oh my goodness, there’s just this aroma.
Wes
Mm-hmm, yes.
Andy
We know from John 11, Martha is very concerned about moving the stone back because Jesus (Lazarus) has been there four days. It’s exactly the wrong time to be moving the stone. If you moved it back in four years, it’d be fine. The bones would be dry. But while there’s still moisture, there’s bacterial growth and it’s going to be disgusting. There’s a terrible odor, there’s a stench. But the fundamental prophecy here is of someone who dies but doesn’t decay and who also is raised from the dead. “My body will live in hope.” This is a clear prediction of bodily resurrection from the dead. This is vital. He’s quoting Psalm 16 because it’s a clear prediction that the Messiah would be raised physically from the dead. Now, Peter’s going to do some very accurate exegetical work here saying, “It isn’t David,” he’s talking about here. We’ll get to that in a minute, that’s vital. But the fundamental prophecy here is that the Messiah would be raised physically from the dead.
Wes
Now, how does Peter say David knew what would happen in the future and what particularly did David see about the Christ in the future?
Andy
Well, he says, “Look, we’re going to zero in on David. David wrote the prophecy.” He calls him, “Patriarch, a patriarch, David,” so that’s a father ruler. David, he died and was buried. Though Peter doesn’t say it, you know what happened after he was buried, his body decayed, the very thing we had just said. David was not speaking about himself, couldn’t have been. So, we’ll get to that in a minute. But he said, “But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne.” 2 Samuel 7, that’s the Davidic covenant.
“When your days are over and you sleep with your fathers, I’ll place one of your own sons on your throne and he will reign on your throne” (2 Samuel 7:12-15, paraphrase). It’s an immediate fulfillment and then an eternal fulfillment. He will have one of his physical sons who will immediately succeed him, Solomon.
When Samuel gives this prediction, not Samuel, Nathan, I think, gives this prediction in 2 Samuel 7, he says, “When he sins, I will chastise him, but I will never take my love from him.”
Therefore, you have this Davidic lineage, a physical descendant of David who would sit on the throne forever. The immediate fulfillments were a lineage, genealogy of Davidic sons. Some of them were godly, most of them weren’t, most of them were sinners, wicked. But God kept the line going until the Davidic son, the Son of David, came to fulfill. He knew, David did, that God had told him that one of his sons would sit on a throne and reign for and ever.
Parenthetically, the first thing we learn about Jesus is that he’s the Son of David, the first thing in the New Testament, Matthew 1:1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. The first thing we learned is that he’s the Christ, but also he’s the Son of David, that’s one and the same thing. He is the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of David.
Now he says, “Look, David was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne, seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay” (Acts 2:30-31). That is prophetic vision, the ability to see.
Now you look at Isaiah 1:1 and it says, “The vision that Isaiah, the prophet saw concerning Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,” all these different realms that Isaiah predicted, it’s a vision that he saw. David was a prophet, and he had a prophetic vision by the power of the Holy Spirit. He saw what was to come, and God moved him to write Psalm 16. He’s writing these words, “You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay.” He’s writing these words, but it’s not about him.
There is no one other than Jesus who died and who was raised to live forever and never see decay.
Now, Old Testament scholars and people that teach Old Testament exegesis talk about the author’s original intent and the immediate fulfillments and all that. Look, the author wasn’t writing about himself. There was no immediate fulfillment. There is no one other than Jesus who died and who was raised to live forever and never see decay. Lazarus didn’t decay, I guess, in that four-day period, but he decayed later.
Wes
Yeah.
Andy
But Jesus alone. This is prophetic scripture. It was speaking of the Messiah that he would be raised physically from the dead.
Wes
Andy, before we move on to close, looking at a few questions from verses 32-36, anything else we need to say about Psalm 16?
Andy
Yeah, Psalm 16 is magnificent. I love the end of it. Here it’s quoted in verse 28, “You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence,” and Psalm 16 goes on, “Eternal pleasures at your right hand.” That’s heaven.
Wes
Yeah.
Andy
That’s what Jesus has won for us. That’s what, Wes, you and I are looking forward to that. We’re going to go to a place of eternal pleasure. It’s at God’s right hand. It’s the pleasure of God himself, of the beauty of God, and the holiness of God, and the glory of God. That’s where we’re going, and Jesus led the way. He is our pioneer, our captain, and he’s bringing us into the very presence of God by his resurrection. That’s what I look forward to. Psalm 16 is magnificent.
Wes
Absolutely. How does verse 32 fit into Peter’s message to Israel?
Andy
Well, it’s historical fulfillment. You have the prophecy, and every generation from David to Jesus had the prophecy, but now it’s been fulfilled. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we’re witnesses. We saw him die and we’ve put our fingers, if need be, in the nail marks and our hands on the side. We’ve touched him and seen flesh and blood. “Spirits do not have flesh and blood as you see I have.” He wasn’t an apparition; he wasn’t a ghost. He was bodily raised from the dead and we are eyewitnesses. We’re standing in front of you telling you, “We have seen Jesus raised from the dead.” Witnesses, God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are witnesses of the fact. What verse 32 is is the historical fulfillment. That’s what we have also in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, now here in Acts as well. We have the testimony that God raised Jesus from the dead.
Wes
What’s the theological significance of Peter’s claim that Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God? What’s the warning implicit in Psalm 110:1 quoted in these verses?
Andy
Yeah, so that’s where he gets it, Psalm 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand,'” so he has exalted to the right hand of God. This is mentioned five or six times in the New Testament. This is a very significant theme. The author to Hebrews talks about this, Jesus at the right hand of God. It’s a position of absolute honor. It’s Jesus. Because in Philippians 2, because he was willing to become a servant and die, even to the point of death on a cross, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. It’s a name of absolute honor. “Sit at my right hand, a place of honor.”
He, from the right hand of God, is able to get the gift of the Holy Spirit, so interceding on behalf of his redeemed, who he has now shed his blood for, he is able to win the gift that he’s now pouring out on them, the Holy Spirit. Exalted to the right hand of God he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. The outpouring of the Spirit came because Jesus rose from the dead and is our mediator interceding on our behalf at the right hand of God.
Now, concerning the right hand of God and the rest of Psalm 110, there’s an implicit threat, similar to Psalm 2. The implicit threat is, “If you oppose the Son of God, if you oppose this Son of David, you’re going to get destroyed. Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
Now here’s the thing, and this can easily move me to emotion if I’m not careful, and then I’ll choke up and it’ll be hard for me to talk. It is impossible for us properly to measure the zeal God the Father has to exalt Jesus to the ends of the earth. He, the beloved Son, obeyed the Father even to the point of pouring out his death under the wrath of God on the cross. His work’s finished, finished. “Sit at my right hand. Now watch what I’ll do. I’m going to make your enemies worship you. I’ll convert them. I’ll take out the heart of stone and they were former enemies, they’ll become your children or I’m going to crush them.”
There’s no other option. He’s either going to convert you or crush you. You’re talking about Almighty God. We’re talking about the omnipotent God of the universe. Imagine having a God like that as your enemy and imagine thinking you can bypass Jesus. I could think about pious Jews who deny that Jesus is the Messiah. You cannot delight in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and not delight in his Son. God will crush you. The fact of the matter is you have to honor the Son. You have to kiss the Son like Psalm 2 says. You better watch out or his wrath can flare in a moment. That’s Psalm 2, there’s an implicit warning there. If you don’t love the Son and delight in him and submit to his kingly rule, he’ll crush you. God will. It’s brighter and hotter than the sun, the zeal that the Father has when he says, “Sit at my right hand and I’m going to make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” It’s a warning and it’s powerful from Almighty God.
Wes
What’s the significance of Peter concluding his sermon calling Jesus both Lord and Christ? What final thoughts do you have for us on these verses?
Andy
Well, he doesn’t expand on it here, but Jesus did. Both Lord and Christ. The Jews were expecting a Christ, they weren’t expecting him to be the Lord. The incarnation, the fact that Almighty God became man and the Son of David and the Son of God at the same time, they didn’t see that coming. Now they could have in the Son of Man vision, but they weren’t ready for it.
Jesus said, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “Son of David,” they said. “How is it then that David speaking by the Spirit calls him Lord? For he says,” Psalm 110 quoted right here, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”‘
If then David calls him, Lord, how can he be his son?” No one could say a word in reply and from that day on, no one dared to ask him any more questions (Matthew 22:41-46).
They’d never seen it. It’s right there. “‘The Lord said to my Lord,” I want you to know. “Therefore,'” verse 36, “‘Let all Israel be assured of this, God, Almighty God, has made this Jesus, whom you crucified both Lord and Christ.'” He is Lord and he is Christ.
Wes
Andy, any final thoughts for us?
Andy
Well, I’ll go back to verse 21, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” There’s nothing more important than that. I believe that that’s something that we do once for all time. The moment we call on him in truth and in faith, we are saved from our sins. We are saved from the wrath of God that we deserve, but we also continue to call, and we receive a continual salvation and sanctification. We keep calling on the name of the Lord, we keep crying out to Jesus, and we are continually saved from indwelling sin and from all that sin can do.
I would urge all of our hearers, if you’ve never trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, call on the name of the Lord Jesus. God sent him to die for us, but also raised him from the dead, clear evidence in Psalm 16, he predicted that it would happen. Then the fulfillment of the Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, now here in Acts as well, clear testimony that eyewitnesses saw Jesus raised from the dead. Call on him. Now, if you’ve been a Christian for 20, 30, 40 years, keep calling on the name of the Lord. Let him keep working his salvation out in your soul by sanctification.
Wes
Well, this has been Episode 5 in our Acts Bible Study podcast and we want to invite you to join us next time for Episode 6 entitled, The First Fruits and the Early Church, where we’ll discuss Acts 2:37-47. Thank you for listening to the Two Journeys podcast and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
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