Saturday, November 30, 2019

Acts 2:14-36 comments: Peter's sermon to Jews assembled from all over the known world


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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