Acts 2:14 ¶ But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. 25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 29 Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. 34 For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 35 Until I make thy foes thy footstool. 36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Peter quotes the
prophet Joel as the prediction of what just happened. He is, of course,
speaking in Hebrew, translated into Greek, then into English for us at least.
Scholars like H.C. Hoskier noted that manuscripts were translated from one
language into another and then back again often. The book of Joel clearly speaks to the end
times. Peter and the believing Jews would have been reading the context of Joel
and expecting, once again, the restoration of Israel’s former glory and its
triumph over its enemies, a recurring theme, hope, and expectation to be
imminent.
Joel 2:28 ¶ And it shall
come to pass afterward, that I
will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: 29 And also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in
the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and
the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. 32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name
of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be
deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall
call.
Peter preaches about
Jesus and in verse 25 he quotes David;
Psalm 16:8 ¶ I have set the
LORD always before me: because he is
at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall
rest in hope. 10 For thou wilt not leave
my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life:
in thy presence is fulness of
joy; at thy right
hand there are
pleasures for evermore.
Jesus had previously
spoken about this Psalm.
Psalm 110:1 ¶
« A Psalm of David. » The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at
my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Matthew 22:41 ¶ While the
Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is
he? They say unto him, The Son
of David. 43 He saith unto them, How
then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my
right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his
son? 46 And no man was able to answer
him a word, neither durst any man
from that day forth ask him any more questions.
The repentant sinner
being saved by calling on the Lord in verse 21 will be contrasted against God’s
calling of a person to salvation in the next passage in verse 39. See what Paul says about salvation.
Romans 10:8 The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith,
which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed.
12 ¶ For there is no difference between the Jew
and the Greek [Paul calls Gentiles Greeks as that is the dominant culture]: for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him. 13 For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
In verse 34 Peter says
that David did not ascend into the heavens as Christ did. Christ is the
Messiah, David’s Lord. So, with Jesus as the son of David (see Matthew 1:1),
the descendant of David, He is also David’s Lord as per Jehovah, LORD God. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah, the Christ (see John 4:25, 26), the
Word by which all things were created (see John 1:1-18), and the Saviour of the
world (1John 4:14), the true God (1John 5:20), the visible, physical appearance
of the invisible God the Father (Hebrews 1:3; John 14:9), who in which abides
all power and authority in the universe.
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven
and in earth.
Verse 36 and the verse
in Matthew 28 I just quoted bring up important points about Biblical
interpretation. Some theologians have insisted that Jesus was not made the Son
of God until He was baptized by God and, in fact, verse 36 says that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye
have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Does being made something or being
given something mean in our strict usage something you weren’t before or didn’t
have before? Does this indicate that Jesus was not the Christ before God made Him so or did not have all power
before it was given to Him?
For something to be
given, granted, or bestowed as a gift does not by necessity mean in a specific
moment in time. In the same way for someone to be made someone can have the
same meaning. It can refer to something one has always had or always been. As a
result I put forward that this made
and this given are from the
beginning, announced to the world at a specific time, implying no sudden
granting or bestowal or change of condition but a declaration of something that
has always been so. As an example I can be the heir of my father’s fortune and
that status may have always been so even if I do not receive the inheritance
until my father dies or I come of age. Our Lord had to be born into the flesh
as a man, a human being, to affirm His status as the Saviour of the world, God
walking in the flesh on earth.
Isaiah 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and
my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand
that I am he: before me there
was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. 11 I, even
I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
As He told Philip in
John 14:9 to have seen Him is to have seen the Father and as Paul said in
Hebrews 1:3 Jesus is the appearance of God. Jesus is that Messiah spoken of in
Daniel 9:25, 26. He came into this world in a body of flesh and assumed the form
of a man, and was and is fully God and fully man, the bridge between God and
man.
Hebrew 10:5 Wherefore when
he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me: 6 In
burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7 ¶
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,)
to do thy will, O God. 8 Above when he
said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the
law;
9 Then said he, Lo, I come
to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the
second. 10 By the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Peter is accusing the
Jews, his own people, of crucifying Christ even though his listeners
individually probably had nothing to do with it. He is accusing the Jews of
rejecting the Messiah God sent but giving the people of God a way back into
God’s good graces as the martyr Stephen will later do to the Jewish leadership.
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