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Scripture Reading: Acts 2:14-47
In Peter’s first message to the Jews (2:14-47) we see four matters: the explaining of the economical filling of the Holy Spirit (vv. 14-21), the witnessing of the Man Jesus in His work, death, resurrection, and ascension (vv. 22-36), the instructing and entreating of the Spirit-moved ones (vv. 37-41), and the beginning of the church life (vv. 42-47). In the foregoing message we covered Peter’s explanation of the economical filling of the Holy Spirit. Let us now go on to consider his witness concerning the Lord Jesus.
In 2:22 Peter says, “Men, Israelites, hear these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man demonstrated by God to you by works of power and wonders and signs, which God did through Him in your midst, even as you yourselves know.” The first message of the apostles’ preaching of the gospel is focused on a Man whom Luke in his Gospel presented to his readers from His conception through His birth, youth, life on earth, death, and resurrection, to His ascension. Now Luke’s succeeding narrative goes on to tell us that this Man was preached by the apostles as the God-ordained Savior.
The Greek word translated “demonstrated” in verse 22 literally means to point out, to exhibit, to show forth, in the sense of proving by demonstration, thus bringing about an approval. This indicates that the Lord’s work was God’s demonstration of Him, His exhibition of Him. While Christ was living and ministering, whatever He did was an exhibition of the fact that His work was done by God. In the four Gospels we have the exhibition of a wonderful Person, the God-man. The Gospels exhibit this God-man as the One who was fully tested, proved, and approved. Peter’s thought in verse 22 is that Jesus was fully tested, proved, and approved by God.
In 2:23 we see that the Lord’s death was according to God’s determined counsel and foreknowledge: “This man, delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you, through the hand of lawless men, nailed to the cross and killed.” This determined counsel must be a counsel held by the Trinity before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20; Rev. 13:8). This indicates that the Lord’s crucifixion was not an accident in human history, but a purposeful fulfillment of the divine counsel determined by the Triune God.
Christ’s death was also according to the foreknowledge of God. Christ was foreordained, prepared, by God to be His redeeming Lamb (John 1:29) for His elect according to His foreknowledge before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20). This was done according to God’s eternal purpose and plan, not accidentally. Hence, in the eternal view of God, from the foundation of the world, that is, the fall of man as a part of the world, Christ was slain (Rev. 13:8).
We have seen that the divine Trinity held a counsel concerning the death of Christ. In that counsel it was determined that the second of the Trinity would become a man and die on the cross. Therefore, the Lord’s crucifixion, which was according to the foreknowledge of the Triune God, was the result of a determination made by the Trinity in an eternal counsel. Therefore, instead of being an accident, the Lord’s crucifixion took place according to the eternal determination of the Triune God.
Acts 2:23 says that through the hand of lawless men the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross and killed. These lawless men included Judas Iscariot (Luke 22:3-6), chief priests, officers of the temple, elders (Luke 22:52-53), the high priest and the Jewish Sanhedrin (Luke 22:54, 66-71), Pilate, Herod, and the Roman soldiers (Luke 23:1-25) — mainly the Jewish religionists with their deputies and the Gentile politicians with their subordinates. This indicates that Jesus was killed by all mankind.
Acts 2:23 says that the Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross. The Jewish death penalty was by stoning (Lev. 20:2, 27; 24:23; Deut. 13:10; 17:5). Crucifixion was a heathen practice (Ezra 6:11), adopted by the Romans for the execution of slaves and heinous criminals only. The crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was not only a fulfillment of the Old Testament (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13; Num. 21:8-9), but also of the Lord’s own word concerning the mode of His death (John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32), which could not have been fulfilled by stoning. It was of God’s sovereignty that not long before the Lord Jesus was put to death the Roman Empire made the law that criminals sentenced to death were to be crucified. It was by this kind of death that the Lord was executed.
In 2:24-32 Peter speaks concerning the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. His resurrection was God’s approval of Him to be the Messiah. Through the resurrection of Christ God was declaring that the resurrected Christ was the real Messiah, the One anointed and appointed by God to carry out His eternal commission.
Acts 2:24 says, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, since it was not possible for Him to be held by it.” Here and in verse 32 Peter says that God raised up Jesus. In 10:40 and 41 he says the same thing again but adds, “He rose from the dead.” Regarding the Lord as a man, the New Testament tells us that God raised Him from the dead (Rom. 8:11). Considering Him as God, it tells us that He Himself rose from the dead (Rom. 14:9). In the same principle, regarding Him as a man, the New Testament tells us that He was killed by men (Mark 9:31). But considering Him as God, it tells us that He laid down His life of Himself (John 10:18). This also proves His dual status — human and divine.
Acts 2:24 says that it was not possible for the Lord to be held by death. The Lord is both God and resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Because He is such an ever-living One, death is not able to hold Him. He delivered Himself to death, but death had no way to detain Him; rather, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it.
Acts 2:25 says, “For David says in regard to Him, I saw the Lord continually before me, because He is on my right hand, that I should not be shaken.” The words “I saw” introduce a declaration of Christ in His resurrection. Here “Lord” refers to God. When Christ is held by God (as in Isa. 41:13; 42:6), God is on His right hand. But when He is exalted by God, He is sitting on the right hand of God (Acts 2:33; Psa. 110:1; Eph. 1:20-21).
Acts 2:26 continues, “Therefore my heart was made glad and my tongue exulted; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope.” This is a quotation from Psalm 16:9 in the Septuagint. But in the original Hebrew text the word for tongue is “glory,” which is a synonym of soul, according to Genesis 49:6 and Psalm 7:5. In His trust in God, Christ’s heart was made glad, and His soul exulted while He was in Hades (Acts 2:27).
The Greek word translated “rest” may also be rendered dwell, reside, pitch its tent. After Christ died on the cross, while His soul exulted in Hades, His flesh (body) rested in the tomb in hope, trusting in God.
Acts 2:27 goes on to say, “Because You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You permit Your Holy One to see corruption.” Hades, like Sheol in the Old Testament (Gen. 37:35; Psa. 6:5), is the place where the souls and spirits of the dead are kept (Luke 16:22-23). Here in Acts 2:27 “corruption” refers to corruption of the body in the tomb.
Acts 2:28 continues, “You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.” Here the ways of life are the ways to get out of death into resurrection. The Greek word for “presence” also means countenance. Christ was resurrected into God’s presence, especially in His ascension (2:34; Heb. 1:3).
In 2:29 through 31 Peter says, “Men, brothers, let me speak to you plainly concerning the patriarch David, that he both deceased and was buried, and his tomb is among us until this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins he would seat One upon his throne, he, seeing this beforehand, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.” The Greek word rendered “fruit” in verse 30 is karpos, used for Christ only in the sense of offspring here and in Luke 1:42. It is used for the fruit of the tree of life in Revelation 22:2. Christ is the branch of Jehovah (Isa. 4:2) and of David (Jer. 23:5), and the fruit of Mary and of David, that we may eat of Him as the tree of life.
Acts 2:30 speaks of Christ as the One who would sit upon David’s throne. This was also declared to Mary by the angel at the conceiving of Christ (Luke 1:32-33).
In Acts 2:32 Peter gives a concluding word concerning Christ’s resurrection: “This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses.” The Greek word for “which” here may also be rendered “whom.” The apostles were witnesses of the resurrected Christ, not in word only, but also by their life and action. Especially they bore witness of His resurrection (4:33), which is the crucial focus in carrying out God’s New Testament economy.
Christ’s ascension was God’s exaltation of Him. In exalting Christ, God made Him both Lord and Christ. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit is a proof that God has exalted the Lord Jesus and has made Him both Lord and Christ.
Acts 2:33 says, “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He poured out this which you both see and hear.” This is not the promise given by the Lord in John 14:16-17 and 15:26, but the promise given by the Father in Joel 2:28, quoted by Peter in Acts 2:17, and referred to by the Lord in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4, concerning the Holy Spirit. The exalted Christ’s receiving of the promise of the Holy Spirit is actually the receiving of the Holy Spirit Himself. Christ was conceived of the Spirit essentially for His being in humanity (Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18, 20), and He was anointed with the Spirit economically for His ministry among men (Matt. 3:16; Luke 4:18). After His resurrection and ascension, He still needed to receive the Spirit economically again so that He might pour Himself out upon His Body to carry out on earth His heavenly ministry for the accomplishment of God’s New Testament economy.
In Acts 2:34 and 35 Peter continues, “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” This proves that up to the time of Pentecost David still had not ascended into the heavens. This annuls the inaccurate teaching based upon Ephesians 4:8-10 that when Christ resurrected He brought Paradise, with all the Old Testament saints, from Hades into the heavens.
In verse 34 David is quoted as saying, “The Lord said to my Lord....” The first “Lord” refers to God, and the second, to Christ, whom David called “my Lord” (Matt. 22:44-45).
Acts 2:34 speaks of the Lord Jesus sitting at God’s right hand. Here “right hand” denotes the position of glory, honor, and power (Exo. 15:6; 1 Kings 2:19; Mark 14:62).
According to 2:35, the Lord is to sit at God’s right hand until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. This indicates that after Christ’s ascension God still works to defeat Christ’s enemies so that He may come back to reign in the universal kingdom of God (1 Cor. 15:25; Rev. 11:15).
In 2:36 Peter concludes, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified.” In this verse “you” is emphatic.
As God, the Lord was the Lord all the time (Luke 1:43; John 11:21; 20:28). But as man, He was made the Lord in His ascension after He brought His humanity into God in His resurrection. And as God’s sent and anointed One, He was Christ from the time He was born (Luke 2:11; Matt. 1:16; John 1:41; Matt. 16:16). But as such a One, He was also officially made the very Christ of God in His ascension. The Lord was made Lord, as the Lord of all (Acts 10:36), to possess all; and He was made Christ, as God’s Anointed (Heb. 1:9), to carry out God’s commission.
