Peter’s Message About Jesus (Acts 2:22-36)

In one of his letters, Peter says to his readers that they should ‘always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you’ (1 Pet. 3:15). It is likely that Peter has a court case in mind as we can see from the word ‘defense’. But they had to have an answer ready.

 

Of course, Peter knew it was not only in a courtroom that such a request could come. After all, Jesus on one occasion asked his disciples to give their understanding of who he was, and Peter replied by saying that he believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 

It was not only his friendly Master who could ask such questions to Peter. As we know, he was asked about Jesus round the fire in the high priest’s house by some servants, and there announced that he knew nothing about Jesus. That was a sad day for Peter, but he was restored by the Master he denied.

 

Peter also had to answer a question on the Day of Pentecost: ‘And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12). No doubt, someone could ask us a question about what we are doing today and why we are doing it. The answer, of course, is that we are remembering Jesus.

 

Of course, Peter would have many opportunities to tell people about Jesus, and he would have stressed different details at various times, depending on the audience he was addressing.

 

A man (v. 22)

Peter starts his explanation by referring to the fact that Jesus is a man from Nazareth. That may not say very much to us, but it would to Peter’s listeners. They would see something intriguing in the name Jesus because it includes a reference to Yahweh as the Saviour. We know the significance of it because it is a reminder that he is Immanuel, God with us. God was in Nazareth, the second person of the blessed Trinity, fully God, but now also fully man.

 

Mentioning the name of Nazareth would also have its effects, because it was a notorious place from which nothing good was expected. Yet Jesus lived there, and even when he spoke to Paul on the Damascus road, he called himself ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ (Acts 22:8).

 

The Messiah (v. 22)

Yet as we see, Peter then says that God did amazing things through this man. Those amazing things were his miracles and there was a wide range of such works. They all said something about Jesus, and what they said about him was that he was the promised Messiah. We can run through some of them in our minds, from the first miracle in Cana of Galilee to the miracle in the Garden of Gethsemane when he healed the man whose ear Peter had damaged with a sword. It is difficult for us to understand the effects of his ministry on the people who witnessed his actions and heard his teachings.

 

Murder (v. 23)

Peter then tells them that they are guilty of a terrible murder. Although they came from different countries they must have been in Jerusalem two months previously when Jesus was executed. Perhaps it was the custom for those who came for the Passover to stay on in Jerusalem until the next feast in the cycle. Or maybe they had returned to keep the Feast of Pentecost because it was one of the three annual feasts that Jews were expected to attend. In the Spring,  Passover was the first, fifty days later was Pentecost, the second feast, and Tabernacles in the Autumn was the third. In the Spring of that year they had arranged for Jesus to be killed by the civil authorities. Is it not amazing that God ensured that the culprits at Passover should become the converted at Pentecost?

 

Mystery

The Jews has their reasons for arranging the crucifying of Jesus, but Peter points out to them that God had his reasons. Peter makes the astonishing claim that the death of Jesus was ‘according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God’ (v. 23). Here we are taken into the counsel room of heaven and informed about an eternal purpose devised by the sovereign Lord. Much could be said about that purpose, but we can mention a few.

 

First, there is the detail that it was God’s eternal purpose that Jesus should be crucified. There is no doubt that such a way of dying was painful beyond words. We might wonder if anything good could happen at such a time, and perhaps we can ask that question of the penitent criminal because when he was crucified beside Jesus he discovered that the man on the centre cross was sinless, and that through Jesus being there beside him it was possible for him to go to heaven that day and be beside Jesus.

 

Second, there is the word that Jesus used when making his assessment of what had taken place on the cross. We see his assessment in the sixth of his seven sayings, when he cried out with a loud voice that he had finished a task. The word has the sense of completion; it is the word that a carpenter would use when he had finished or completed making a chair. Jesus cries out to the One who could understand what had happened at the cross, to his Father who had planned it all. He cried out in triumph affirming that he had paid the penalty of sin because that is what the eternal plan was about. The eternal Father had agreed with the eternal Son that he should become a man and suffer in the place of sinners; and the eternal Holy Spirit had agreed that he would enable the eternal Son in our nature to offer himself without spot to God. What a wonderful mystery!

 

Manifested (v. 32)

Peter then informs the gathered crowd of something astonishing that he had seen regarding Jesus. Of course, Peter had seen Jesus do many wonderful miracles. Greater than all of them was to see Jesus standing before him as risen from the dead. We know from the Gospels that Peter had a personal meeting with Jesus that day as he met Jesus on his path of life (quoted from Psalm 16). Personal restoration was given to Peter after his awful denial of Jesus in the high priest’s house.

 

Who can say what that experience was like for Peter? We will have to wait until we can ask him in heaven. Of course, Peter was to have other experiences of the risen Christ, including what we can call his public restoration in front of other disciples on the occasion when Jesus asked him three times if he loved him. Peter had experienced what Jesus had promised when he had predicted that he would rise again from the dead.

 

Lazarus had been raised from the dead, but he had not been raised as the Victor over death because one day he would die again. That was not the manner of Jesus’ resurrection. He arose triumphant over the king of terrors. What a sight Peter and the other apostles were given when they saw Jesus, declared to be the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead.

 

Majesty

Peter recalled walking with Jesus to Bethany and seeing Jesus ascend to heaven. He had seen the shekinah glory cloud come out of heaven so that Jesus could ride on it into heaven, making his way to the throne of God as the Mediator. He was going to get his reward for completing the work given to him by the Father. The reward was the promise of the Holy Spirit, as the blesser of sinners. And the Day of Pentecost was the first evidence that Jesus, now highly exalted having receive the name above every name, had received the Spirit. The astonishing detail is that he poured out the Spirit in Jerusalem so that those who had crucified him would see the evidence of his exaltation.