Christianity is Christ (Acts 2:22-36)
Today it is common for businesses and other enterprises to have a slogan or mission statement that summarises their purpose. One statement that states the purpose of the church in a very clear way is ‘Christianity is Christ’. We have already noted that Luke is presenting his material in Acts as the activities of the risen Christ. Now as we continue to look at Peter’s sermon, we can see from its contents that Christianity is Christ.
We noticed in the previous chapter that Peter began his explanation of the significance of Pentecost by referring to the prophecy of Joel in which he predicted the outpouring of the Spirit. In developing his explanation, Peter moves from the biblical passage that described Pentecost to the One who was in control of Pentecost, that is Jesus Christ. Peter’s sermon structure thus contains two essential features of a sermon: biblically based and Christ-centred. This shift by Peter does not mean that he has ceased basing his comments on a biblical passage (he will proceed to use Psalm 16 and Psalm 110 to explain what happened to Jesus, although he uses them to give details of events of which his listeners could have no knowledge otherwise – the resurrection and ascension of Jesus). This is a reminder that the Bible gives information about secret events. Yet it does not mean that the Bible deals with matters that are speculative because no human witness observed them. Instead it is a sure word from God giving information that we need but which we could not have otherwise.
One important point about Peter’s preaching here is that he is responding to a question that was asked by the crowd. The people wanted an explanation of what was taking place. There is an important lesson here for preachers, which is that the gospel must be connected to current questions of the listeners. A sermon is not a history lesson in which the gospel is applied to a situation that existed a couple of centuries ago. Nor is it an occasion for presenting the message of Jesus in a manner that applies it to circumstances that the preacher wished were in existence. The unchanging truth of the gospel of Jesus can be presented with clarity and conviction to any society, and this is one of the important emphases of the Book of Acts, and we can learn from the way the different preachers applied the gospel message to a variety of audiences.
The life of Jesus
Peter begins his Christ-centred section of his sermon by summarising the public ministry of Jesus: he was ‘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’ (v. 22). In these words, Peter reveals the main purpose of the various miracles which Jesus performed. They were the evidence that the promised Messiah, the one predicted in the Old Testament, had come. These signs were visible evidences, no-one could deny that they had taken place.
Of course, there are many aspects of the life of Jesus that Peter could have mentioned. He could have described some of his teachings or some of his devotional practices such as his prayer life. Further, Peter could have explained the necessity of Jesus living a life of inner and outward obedience to God’s commandments, both as providing a life of obedience for his people as their righteousness before God and as qualifying Jesus to be the sinless sinbearer of the sins and transgressions of his people. The fact is, there are too many aspects of Christ’s life to be included in one sermon, and Peter was led by God to focus on the aspect of his Saviour’s life that was most suitable for his audience.
The death of Jesus
Second, Peter summarises the death of Christ in verse 23: ‘this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.’ In this summary, Peter mentions two doctrines that many people regard as contradictory, the doctrines of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Perhaps Peter was anticipating an obvious response: ‘If Jesus was attested by God as his Messiah, why were the Roman authorities able to kill him?’ The answer Peter gives is one that silences such an objection: ‘The primary reason why Jesus died is the eternal plan of God.’ It is important for us to retain the meaning of ‘foreknowledge’; it refers to God’s plan, to God’s knowledge of what he purposed, and not to a bare awareness of what would happen in the future. This illustration might help: if I throw a marble down a shoot I can see where it is going. Before I throw it, I don’t know where it will go, but after I throw it I can see whether it will run to the right or to the left. This is not the kind of knowledge that is meant by Peter. Instead, this knowledge would require that I would know before I threw the marble which direction it would go. Such a knowledge is impossible for humans.
The significance of the death of Jesus being according to the sovereign will of God is that it means his death was always God’s way of salvation. This decision was made by God long before he created the world. It was not an after-thought forced upon him by the unexpected rebellion of Adam and Eve shortly after their creation. Instead it was always the plan of eternal God that his Son would come to earth and die in the place of sinners.
Obviously, it is beyond our abilities to understand how God came to the details of his purpose. When the wisest and most powerful leaders on earth decide on a programme, they do so after consultation. God did not need to consult with anyone. Yet we can say that one feature would have been at the centre of God’s decisions: this feature is that he does all things for his own glory. The glory of God can be sub-divided in various ways: there is the glory of his love, the glory of his wisdom, the glory of his power, the glory of his justice etc. We could suggest ways in which each of these attributes are revealed and displayed in the death of Christ. Over it all can be written, God planned this for his own glory. The death of Jesus, which seemed initially to be the collapse and permanent defeat of his glory, actually became the means of revealing and displaying for ever the glory of God. When we look at the cross of Christ, we are to look at what it tells us about God.
Yet Peter does not stress the sovereignty of God to the exclusion of human responsibility. Courageously, and no doubt with an awareness of the power of the Spirit strengthening his words, Peter states clearly the guilt of his hearers in the death of Christ. Most of them could have said that they had not physically harmed Jesus. Nevertheless Peter reminds them of their corporate guilt in the matter when he says, ‘you crucified and killed [Jesus] by the hands of lawless men.’ Very likely, Peter means that they were part of the crowd who had called on Pilate to sentence Jesus to death. This was as much an involvement in the death of Jesus as was the separate actions of the Sanhedrin’s and Pilate’s sentencing him to death.
Of course, we can easily recognise the corporate nature of their guilt. Yet we must not forget to remind ourselves that there are other corporate elements to the condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus.
The resurrection of Jesus (vv. 24-28)
Peter then describes the resurrection of Jesus: ‘God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.’ His words indicate that Jesus died a real death, but they also point out that God raised him from the death because he could not be held by it. What were the reasons that made it impossible for death to retain a hold on Jesus Christ?
One reason was that Jesus had finished the work of salvation. One requirement of this task was that he give his life as a ransom for sinners. By his death, this ransom was paid when he endured the divine penalty against sin. Since he had made the payment, death could not hold on to him.
A second reason is that, although he died, he did not die as a victim of death. Instead he voluntarily chose to enter into death in order to defeat it. It was not so much that death was sticking out its cold hands in order to take hold of Christ, it was that Jesus was heading towards death in order to show that it had no power over him. He showed to all that he was stronger than death when he was raised from the dead.
In distinction from his comments on the life and on the death of the Saviour, Peter uses verses from Psalm 16 to explain the resurrection of Jesus. He notes that it was obvious that David could not have been describing his own experience in Psalm 16 because his body was still in the grave. Therefore he was referring to Someone else who would die, but who would not be affected by death. This Someone would be the One who would fulfil the Davidic covenant, in which God promised David that he was the first of an endless royal line. David was not describing the rule of a king who would succumb to death’s power, but rather he was describing a King whom death would not be able to affect.
As has often been pointed out, in the Psalms we have more than a description of an event because in addition to such detail we are also given the feelings and aspirations of the person who is in view. For example, in Psalm 22 we have more than the fact that Jesus was crucified; we also have what Jesus thought regarding the situation he was in when on the cross. Psalm 16 gives us insight into how Jesus regarded his resurrection. In verses 25 and 26, Peter describes the joy of Jesus as he anticipated his resurrection, in verse 27, Peter verbalises the confidence that Jesus had in the heavenly Father as he thought of his death, in verse 28, Peter pictures the rejoicing Christ in his resurrected state. We can think about these features briefly.
Verse 25 describes the dedication of Jesus (‘ I saw the Lord always before me’) and the divine help that he continually received (for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken). This was the story of his life on earth, as we can note from the occasion when he attended the temple in Jerusalem as a young boy. Even then, he was about his Father’s business. His whole life was dedicated to fulfilling the will of his Father. Throughout his life, he was always conscious of his Father’s protection. Is this not clearly seen in Matthew 26:53: ‘Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?’
The outcome of this intensity of devotion and sense of his Father’s presence was a sense of great joy in the experience of Jesus. Sometimes the question is asked, ‘Was Jesus a Man of Joy in addition to being the Man of Sorrows?’ The answer to such a question is ‘Yes’. This verse makes clear that he was full of joy. Even if we could not find such a verse, we could deduce that he must have known great joy because he was full of the fruit of the Spirit, an aspect of which is joy. In particular, his inner attitude and his praising tongue is mentioned. I suspect that both occurred simultaneously, and I also suspect that the means he used to express his joy was the psalms of the Old Testament.
The focus of the next three lines concern the dead body of Jesus. His death would be like a rest, and we can see this was the case when we consider the agony and distress that he experienced on the cross. He knew that his human soul would not be lost in the realms of the dead, nor would his body see the smallest amount of corruption. Does this not explain the serenity with which he died when he said, ‘Lord, into your hands I commend by spirit.’ He died full of confidence in the faithfulness of the Father.
In verse 28, we have a change of perspective in the Speaker. Instead of looking forward to a future event, he is describing a present experience. In the eye of his faith, David describes the experience of the Messiah as he was raised from the dead. Jesus turned to his heavenly Father and declared, ‘You have made known to me the paths of life.’ Jesus strode out of the dark domain on a road prepared for him by his Father. He depicts the Father as his Guide on the road into the new world. This was the secret shared by the Father and the Son as he emerged out of the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
The paths of life involved his ascension to the heavenly city, and no doubt we can imagine many of the paths that can be found within it. This path will eventually lead to the time when Jesus will return and raise his people from the dead; it will also lead to the Great White Throne, and then to the new heavens and new earth. On this heavenly highway, his people will be found, as the prophet predicted (Isa. 35).
On each inch of the paths of life, Jesus is full of gladness caused by the Father’s presence. Stephen Charnock summarised the joy of Christ in these words. ‘His soul hath joys without mixture, pleasures without number, a fullness without want, a constancy without interruption, and a perpetuity without end.’
The action of the exalted Christ (vv. 33-34)
The experiences of Jesus from his life on earth to his life in heaven as the risen, ascended Saviour are the framework that Peter uses in order to explain what occurred on the Day of Pentecost. Unless we appreciate the different changes in the life and work of Jesus, many of his activities will seem like isolated events. Therefore, we should follow the example of Peter and identify in which state Jesus was when he said a statement or performed an action.
The coming of the Holy Spirit to the church at Pentecost was the outcome of the reception of the Spirit by the exalted Christ in heaven. On this occasion, Peter uses the arrival of the Spirit as the evidence that Jesus has truly been exalted. Of course, the coming of the Spirit points to other aspects of the work of Christ such as his desire to forgive sinners and his determination to empower his people. Yet we are not to ignore the judgemental aspect of the exaltation of Jesus because Peter, in quoting from Psalm 110, makes it clear that one guaranteed outcome of his enthronement is that all his enemies will become his footstool. The great occasion of this outcome will be the Day of Judgement.
In verses 33-35, there is reference made to two promises of the Father to his Son. One promise was made to him before he became incarnate: the Father promised his Son that he would receive the Holy Spirit upon completion of his work of atonement. This promise has been fulfilled at Pentecost, and is being fulfilled throughout the period between the two comings of Jesus. The second promise was made by the Father to the Son when the Son sat down on the throne of God. This promise, of making his enemies his footstool, is a reminder that Jesus will have total victory.
The second promise is also a statement that calls believers to realism. Enemies of Jesus will exist until the Father causes them all to bow the knee to Jesus Christ. Many of his enemies, and the systems and organisations they formed, have been defeated. No doubt, others will appear, as the war continues between the enemies of Christ and his cause. His followers are not to expect an easy journey through life.
Yet these twofold promises of the Father call for a response from us. Each revival that we read about, each conversion that we are informed about, each Christian that we meet, testify to us that Jesus is Lord because they are the evidences of the work of the Spirit. Each political demise, each collapse of an empire, each disintegration of a prominent idea or opinion, also testifies to the activity of the Father in making Christ’s enemies into his footstool.
We will see in the next section of this sermon by Peter the response which he called for from the people. This response is twofold: a recognition that Jesus is Lord and repentance for our rebellion against him. The response that he called for on the Day of Pentecost is the same response that he calls for today.