Sunday, September 4, 2022 AM

Well let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Heavenly Father I thank you for gathering us here today.

You are so good to hear our prayers, to answer them, to love us for the sake of your

Son in whom you are well pleased, to give us your

Holy Spirit that we may live in relationship with you enjoying your many graces.

And this is one of them that we can come here together in this place and at this time to hear your word.

Lord I ask that as you declare to us the glories of your Son Jesus Christ that we would rejoice that your word about your

Son would find a hearty amen in our lives.

That as you show us your Son in this word that you would transform us to look like him in this world.

We pray all these things for his sake. Amen. We'll invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 and we will be reading beginning in verse 25 through verse 36.

Acts chapter 2 verses 25 through 36.

It is the day of Pentecost and as has been promised by many prophets the

Holy Spirit has arrived in just those ways that should get all of the people present thinking about the

Old Testament promises. The prophets of old had said it would be like this and to the crowd of the dumbfounded and the skeptics

Peter begins to preach to declare the meaning of Pentecost so that they would not be left with doubt or derision.

And Peter simply begins to point out that the arrival of the new covenant made so manifest by the

Holy Spirit's presence signals the end of the old covenant. He says welcome to the last days of the old for the new has come and good news with it.

Even though judgment is pending and he urges them to be delivered from this perverse generation, a generation with the blood of Jesus on their hands and indeed the blood of all the prophets

Christ has ascribed to this perverse generation. Peter says be saved.

That's the promise from Joel. He said that last days of the old covenant would be just like this in the arrival of the

Holy Spirit and there is a promise of salvation whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved and goes on to identify that Lord none other than Jesus of Nazareth who is the

Christ the Son of a living God. And he goes on to point out the same the same truths on a grander scale not just from Joel but from David.

Not just from the old covenant prophet Joel but the old covenant prophet and King David so that by the testimony of two witnesses this most wonderful word would be established.

Well let's read beginning in verse 25.

I invite you to stand with me as we read God's Word. Here is the word of our

Savior and Sovereign Jesus Christ by his Spirit in his servant

Luke. For David says concerning him, I foresaw the

Lord always before my face for he is at my right hand that I might not be shaken therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad moreover my flesh also will rest in hope for you will not leave my soul in Hades nor will you allow your

Holy One to see corruption you have made known to me the ways of life you will make me full of joy in your presence.

Men and brethren let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David that he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body according to the flesh he would raise up the

Christ to sit on his throne he foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the

Christ that his soul was not left in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption this

Jesus and God has raised up of which we are all witnesses therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit he poured out this which you now see in here for David did not ascent into the heavens but he says of himself but he says himself the

Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this

Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ this is the word of the

Lord thanks be to God you may be seated it is with great excitement and great trepidation that we have now come back to football season lives are being changed routines are being disrupted it is what it is in the offseason there's really nothing to talk about even though they try and there's debate eventually they get to the bottom of the barrel and there's nothing left to talk about so then they have to talk about who's the greatest of all time who's the goat in as a coach or in a particular position or whatever and so they have something to talk about who is the greatest of all time who's the goat you know the debates are spirited and use up airtime but what if what if there were two candidates what if there were two candidates for the greatest of all time and the debate was raging on the sports show and and actually one of those two candidates called in what would happen one of those two candidates called in and said you guys are way off base you guys are going back and forth let me let me just settle this

I'm not the greatest of all time this other guy is here's my reasons there's no competition he's the greatest well now you don't have much to discuss but at least the debate has been settled right the debate has now been settled in this particular moment in time here in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost there are two covenants at work at the same time

Jesus has come and he has shed his blood and died upon the cross and he was raised from the dead and now reigns at the right hand of the

Father he has brought about the New Covenant he said that's what he was doing and he did and he fulfilled all those promises that were made by the prophets about how the

Messiah would come and do this very thing and indeed one of the major signs that the New Covenant was was present was the gift of the

Holy Spirit there's always that that central blessing of the

New Covenant as declared in the Old Testament by the prophets anticipating that better day the

Holy Spirit was promised and an effusion of the Holy Spirit unlike anything that had ever been seen that every member of the

New Covenant would be would be born again and alive in the Holy Spirit and bear the righteousness of God himself so many wonderful promises and indeed the

New Covenant had arrived but the Old Covenant was still in operation still in operation there were still those priests in that temple on that hill in Jerusalem still observing the feast day still still ceremonially washing their hands and and going through all of those motions that in shadow declared the coming of the

Messiah but he had come two covenants in operation one appeared to be very grand indeed one of the wonders of the ancient world

Herod's temple laid over in gold massive stones that even today engineers can't figure out how to move acreage acres of temple property swarming with activity power political power wealth beyond imagining behold the grandeur of the operations of the

Old Covenant and along comes this ragtag group from Galilee with their thick accents and on Pentecost they start preaching in about 17 different dialects with their thick

Galilean accents declaring the good news of the kingdom the mighty works of God through the person and work of Jesus Christ the debate is on which covenant is better and all the way through the rest of the

New Testament in the entirety of the New Testament all of Jesus's parables and then reading through the New Testament that is the raging debate which one which one who are the who are the people of God how are we to understand the

Bible how are you understand the the promises of the Old Testament how are we supposed to now live given the realities of the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which one is the is the better covenant which one is the right covenant which is the greatest of all time interesting isn't it interesting

Jesus said that of the Old Covenant of the Old Testament there was none greater of the prophets than John John the

Baptist right he was the goat Jesus said he's the goat of all the Old Covenant prophets and you know what

John the Baptist said of Jesus I'm nothing compared to him I I'm not even worthy to untie his sandal he's the real deal now that's the kind of covenant transition that is to be desired that is the preaching of the good news here that the

Apostles are are preaching the good news and they're and they're calling the the folks there that the Jews from all over the

Roman Empire as they've gathered there for this this feast day this feast of harvest they're calling them to have that same mentality that they would rejoice in the greatness of Jesus of Nazareth who is the

Christ the Son of the Living God that they would be like John the Baptist oh we must decrease he must increase he's the real deal but you know there was a lot of resistance to that a lot of resistance a lot of jealousy it was from jealousy that the stewards of the

Old Covenant the Pharisees the scribes the Sadducees they that they they were jealous of Christ they were jealous like King Saul was jealous of David said no hey you know you have to have

Saul and David you have two anointed at the same time but Saul's anointing was coming to an end and David's anointing had just begun but Saul was jealous of David and wanted to kill him and destroy everything about him in the same sense we've got we've got two anointed in play here we've got we've got

Israel the the anointed mediator of the Old Covenant that's all shadow but testifying to Christ but Christ has come he's there and he's operating he's in heaven he's at the right hand here are his people and there's going to be a jealous conflict that we're going to read about through the entirety of the

New Testament sometimes in the book of Acts we're going to find Jews who who turn to Christ and rejoice and sometimes we're gonna find that they resent what's being proclaimed and they and they go on the attack and Peter is preaching and saying hey there's good news there's salvation in the

Lord there's deliverance in the Lord be saved from this perverse generation don't embrace their rejection of of Jesus as the

Christ don't don't be swept away in the judgment that awaits them be saved call upon the name of the

Lord and in order to convince them of this Peter wanting the folks in front of him his men the men and brethren in front of him to submit to the true

King of Kings he calls upon the goat the greatest of all time King in the

Old Testament whose name was David and he wants his audience to listen to what

David has to say the greatest king of all time that they knew of and they want to let me he wants them to listen to David as David calls in to the debate he's got something to say about Jesus of Nazareth that's what we're looking at right here in this text so Peter quotes the second half of Psalm 16 in which

David as a prophet proclaims the resurrection the death and resurrection of the

Messiah indeed even hints at the Ascension it all fits really well with Jesus of Nazareth and we looked at Psalm 16 last time we were together so not only so we see that David is a prophet speaking about Messiah but also

David is a patriarch of the Messiah which he's which Peter says in verse 29 so let's look at verse 29 and we'll go back to verses 25 to 28 in a moment but first of all

David is a patriarch second of all David is a prophet why should we listen to David why is he calling upon David as a one of the two witnesses well first of all

David is a patriarch of Christ verse 29 men and brethren let me speak freely to you let me speak openly to you robustly to you of the patriarch

David he's both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day so let's talk about the patriarch

David not that word patriarch caught my eye right when

I think of the patriarchs instinctively I think of Abraham Isaac and Jacob right that's usually the definition that we have for the patriarchs a word mean chief father chief father but David here is called a patriarch that's interesting to me when we go and look in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 4 we read about the patriarch of Abraham right

Abraham well you know he's the patriarch father Abraham but what but then we read in Acts 7 in Stephen's defense of the faith that the sons of Jacob the sons of Jacob the children of Israel they're called patriarchs as well so Abraham's called a patriarch the children of Jacob are called patriarchs and David's called a patriarch what's the deal why are they patriarchs well when we begin to reflect upon the way that the

Old Testament reads the the New Testament reads the Old Testament we reflect that Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham right he's the seed of Abraham he's the promised one we also reflect upon the fact that he's the sum of Israel and everything that was said about Israel in the old covenant about their function and blessing is said again in the

New Testament of Jesus so he's the seed of Abraham he's the sum of Israel and what else is he called the son of David the son of David that's why

Abraham and Jacob's sons and David are called patriarchs chief fathers and Peter says we got to listen to David it's a fitting thing it

Jewish tradition held that David died on Pentecost on that on that harvest feast that David had died on the very day that Peter is preaching so it just makes sense to bring

David up besides the fact in the last 100 years David's grave

David's tomb had been infamously breached first by John Hyrcanus and then secondly by Herod himself so everybody knew

David was dead they checked twice recently right so when

David is prophesying in the psalm about you're not going to leave my soul in the grave you're gonna leave me leave my body in the grave you're not going to allow corruption to to afflict me in the grave

Peter says he's got to be talking about somebody else you see how he's making his point he's a patriarch of Christ now why is that so significant it's so significant that Paul in describing the message that he had been called to in Romans chapter 1 verses 3 through 4 he's he's he's saying

I'm an apostle I've been sent out to preach a message and and my whole ministry is according to according to these facts

Romans 1 verses 3 & 4 he says concerning his ministry is concerning God's Son Jesus Christ our

Lord who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh born of the seed of David according to the flesh and and look and think about what he lays alongside of that declared to be the

Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead he lays along to lays aside two things he says he is the

Son of David according to the flesh and he's the Son of God proven by the Holy Spirit in the resurrection that's so important why is it so important because Jesus is the

Christ the Son of the Living God he has two full natures unpolluted unmixed brought together into one person he is

God of very God and man of very man Jesus Christ God incarnate for us and for our salvation and he was truly humanly born of David you can trace his lineage back to David in two ways whichever way pleases you but it's doubly affirmed by Matthew and Luke he's a descendant of David just like the promises said track it all the way back to Genesis to David's tribe

Judah and what and what Jacob whose name was changed to Israel said of his son the patriarch

Judah that the scepter would not depart from between his feet until Shiloh comes the one to whom it all belongs in this line of Judah would reign and his kingdom is declared in the

Old Testament to have no end this kingdom would be greater even than his father David a kingdom that would have no restrictions ultimately upon its expanse and its time frame indeed all of Peter's audience knew that the

Messiah would come from David they all knew that they all knew that the Messiah was from the tribe of Judah their expectations in those regards have been well established and and they were correct that they should be looking for a son of David somebody from the tribe of Judah and Peter says well it's even better than that it's even better than that the patriarch

David speaks of his son in these following ways but the hope for the son of David was strongly established all the way back in 2nd

Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 16 we need to look on that with fresh eyes because we need to remember what it was like to be living in anticipation of the

Messiah and then to be told he has come he has arrived he has accomplished that which he had been prophesied to do so in 2nd

Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 16 we come to a moment in David's life when he had had great success and a pause of peace in his life and he began to reflect upon the blessings of God and the goodness of God and realized

I live in a wonderful house after so many years of being on the run from my enemies and here

I am settled in my city but the throne of God the

Ark of the Covenant the worship of the Lord himself is in a tent no this this cannot be born

I will I will build a house for God here in Jerusalem and he tells Nathan his plan as Nathan's like you go for a man sounds good to me and Nathan goes home and God says hold up you go back and you tell

David it's not his job not his job the son of David will build the temple son of David will build the temple and God says to Nathan you go tell

David thanks for the offer to build me a house but here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna build you a house

I'm gonna build you a household a lineage and there's promises that I want you to hold fast to so let's look at that 2nd

Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 16 the

Prophet Nathan speaking for the Lord to David when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers

I will set up your seed after you who will come from your body and I will establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever remember all the conflict about which one of David's sons would reign how many times was there conflict violent conflict about which son would be the seed of David on the throne but God and his sovereign providence orchestrated things so that it was

Solomon it was the one of whom God said to the

Prophet call him Jedidiah for my sake meaning my beloved but my beloved upon the throne put the real son of David upon the throne despite all the contenders he's the one who's going to build me a house he's the one who's going to build the temple hope you're catching all of the anticipations of the

Messiah in the way that the story of David and his son unfolds verse 14

I will be his father and he shall be my son now that sounds familiar where else did

God say that well he said that in Exodus of a nation called

Israel and he rebuked Pharaoh through his Prophet Moses and said you let my people go why because Israel is my firstborn son

Israel is my beloved son and you've got a hold of him in fact you're trying to destroy him and to kill him you're persecuting him and you've got to let him go and Pharaoh said no no and ultimately

God then said because you have afflicted my firstborn I'll afflict yours and he sends the angel of death upon upon Egypt and the firstborn was being killed throughout all of Egypt why because Pharaoh had a hold of God's son and God said he's my son

I'll deal with him and he says what he says of Israel as the nation as the whole throughout various portions of the

Old Testament now he says this of a particular person David's seed

I'm gonna call him my son and I'm a father to him now what is that how does that work because in the monarchy of Israel especially in the monarchy the king could stand for the whole the king represents all of them at the same time when we read in the

Old Testament for example that King so -and -so went to war with King so -and -so it wasn't just two guys with clubs in a mud hole it was this whole nation versus this whole nation because the king stood in and represented the entirety of the people so it makes sense that God would say of the king who would represent the whole my son even as he said of the whole of Israel my son do you see how the one stands in for the other now notice what he says about his son and how he's going to deal with him according to the standards of the

Old Covenant God is consistent verse 14 I'll be his father and he shall be my son if he commits iniquity

I would chasten him with a rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men isn't that not what he promised to Israel his son if you commit iniquity if you transgress the covenant

I will punish you I will afflict you I will use the means of my pleasure to whatever they are at my disposal

I will use them to afflict you he says the same thing of the son of David meaning if he if he is a covenant breaker then

I will punish him but if he's a covenant keeper then I'm going to bless him verse 15 but my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom

I removed from before you and your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you and your thrones will be established forever meaning

God's promising an everlasting throne and everlasting air a kingdom that will know no end and will not be brought to an end by by the cycles of sin and judgment but indeed a kingdom that will continue on and on and on to the glory of God ultimately promising this in a descendant of David that's the promise and that promise is spoken of throughout the

Old Testament and the New Testament very significant promise of God now the question for the

Jews the question for the audience to whom Peter is preaching is indeed this who is this descendant of David who is the son of David who will reign upon David's throne we're all very interested because the last one to reign on David's throne was a pretty bad

King Zedekiah and he got his kids killed in front of him in his eyes put out and he died in despair in Babylon last word that you have in the in the

Tanakh the the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament we call it the very last word in 2nd

Chronicles 2nd Chronicles the last book in the Hebrew Bible very last word is about Jeconiah Jeconiah who is a descendant of David who was in prison but but finally one of the pagan kings took him out of prison put him at the table and treated him kindly okay there's a glimmer of hope there that that God is showing his favor still upon the descendant of David but here's the problem in the city of Jerusalem though it's rebuilt and the temple's rebuilt there is no descendant of David sitting on a throne in Jerusalem on Mount Zion it's like it's like there was this tree a blessed tree it was the lineage of David and in judgment

God cut it down there's nothing left but a stump which is why

Isaiah prophesies of the shoot coming out of the stump of Jesse indeed the shoot is called a branch a branch of righteousness that will be raised up out of that stump indeed a descendant of David that would come to the throne and bring to pass those promises that God had made time and again and although we reserve it for Christmas we really ought not

Isaiah 9 6 through 7 for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulder and his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty

God everlasting father how does the son called the father the term father is a term used of Kings it's an honor to Kings he's an everlasting

King Prince of Peace of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end same kingdom that we read about in other places that has no end to the kingdom upon notice where the government and the peace will be established notice where the kingdom will be upon the throne of David no end will this one reign this child this son he will reign upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward even forever how how will this even be able to be to come to pass and come together the zeal of the

Lord of hosts will perform this if Yahweh's Sabbath oath that the Lord of hosts who has everything under his control from the locusts to the galaxies if he's really energetic about something

I think is going to get done just try to stop it so we know who this child is we know who it is we rejoice in his birth every year we rejoice in his resurrection every year and we should rejoice in his ascension every year we should remember who this is this is the greater son of David this is

Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ the Son of the Living God in Jeremiah chapter 33 verses 14 through 22 we can look over there

I'm just going to read through this passage and briefly comment as we move you don't have time for a fuller study of it today this is just one example of the

New Covenant promises that entail Jesus that entail who the Christ is in relationship to David this is just one of many but I think it's appropriate

Jeremiah 33 beginning in verse 14 behold the days are coming good news ahead and behold the days are coming says the

Lord that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel into the house of Judah other words and Jeremiah if you've never read through Jeremiah it's a lot of doom and gloom but deservedly so the judgment of God upon the covenant breakers however throughout is woven this promise the

New Covenant that this is not all that God wrote there's a good thing coming there's a new covenant coming verse 15 in those days and at that time

I will cause to grow up to David a branch of righteousness all right remember what remember what the town

Nazareth means branch town he shall be called Nazarene right he's the branch a branch of righteousness coming out of that stump of Jesse he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth in those days

Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell safely and this is the name by which she will be called the

Lord our righteousness just like Joel said there whoever will call upon the name of the

Lord shall be saved you continue to read their salvation their safety in Jerusalem in Zion that's where we must flee and everybody in that special city being ruled over by Christ will be known in by the righteousness the very righteousness of God himself for this as the

Lord David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel nor shall the priests the

Levites like a man to offer burnt offerings before me to kindle grain offering and to sacrifice continually all that's about to end right

Jerusalem's about to be destroyed in 586 BC there'll be no king on the throne and no Levites in the temple the entire worship of God the holiness of God that was being mediated through that place is going to be completely stripped away and taken away the authority of God being mediated in that place through the king it's gonna be completely stripped and completely taken away what then what happens when the holy city falls when

Mount Zion is overrun by the pagans and all of us a desolate waste oh this will not be the end this will not be the end

God's authority and God's holiness will be mediated again and eternally so without ceasing verse 19 and the word of the

Lord came to Jeremiah saying thus says the Lord if you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that there will be day and no not be day and night in their season then my covenant may also be broken with David my servant so that he will not have a son reign on his throne and with the

Levites the priests my my ministers now God says well if you can stop day and night you'll stop me from doing this you just try what is he saying there's going to be a descendant of David who reigns and this is a kingdom that will be a kingdom of priests what is the what is the

New Testament called those who were in Christ kingdom of priests verse 22 as the host of heaven cannot be numbered nor the sand of the sea measured so I will multiply the descendants of David my servant and the

Levites who minister to me hang on a second this host of heaven business was Genesis 15 and said to Abraham and this sands of sea stuff is that the grains of the of dirt and land that was that was

Abraham Genesis 13 why is this being said to David you know

Abraham was a patriarch David's patriarch he's saying the descendants of David Christ is the seed of Abraham Christ is the sum of Israel Christ is the son of David and all the promises of God are yes in Christ so David is a patriarch but let's who has preeminence without Christ David is nothing

David's glory is entirely attendant to Christ's glory he is but the moon to the light of Christ this is satellite around the light and the gravity of Jesus and Christ is

David's greater son David is a patriarch of Christ and David is a prophet of Christ now we need to be clear on how this is said verse verses 25 to 28 a quote from the second half of Psalm 16 and Peter quotes that and then says you know this couldn't possibly just be about David right

David surely was was writing out of his own experiences but he's also writing by the inspiration of the

Holy Spirit and remember that Peter says in his letter and ultimately who's speaking through the

Spirit in his prophets it's Christ himself so so David is proclaiming his own experiences

God's anointed the perils of death that he often faces he is expressing hope in his resurrection but ultimately this cannot be said merely of David himself verse 30 therefore being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body according to the flesh he would raise up the

Christ to sit on his throne he's alluding there to Psalm 132 verse 11 he's already quoted

Psalm 16 now he's alluding to Psalm 132 11 and then he he says he

David verse 31 for seeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ the

Messiah the anointed one saying what that his soul the soul of Christ the life of Christ was not left in Hades Sheol the grave nor did his flesh see corruption his his body was laid in the tomb but it did not decay for he was raised the third day verse 32 this

Jesus the God has raised up of which we are all witnesses see what he's saying he's saying that David is the patriarch of the

Messiah but not only the patriarch but the prophet and he identified who the Messiah would be who his son would be and you would know him because God would raise him up from the dead that's how you would know who the true son of David is because God would raise him up from the dead and he says to this fact we are all witnesses is undeniable that God raised

Jesus of Nazareth up from the dead those who who were denying it and paying people off and spreading lies about it

I mean it was so such a blatant obvious gaslighting lie

I mean you could just smell Satan coming out of their mouth yeah come to think of it we've got a lot of demonic halitosis today too but Peter says it's undeniable he there's no denying these facts that Jesus Christ has risen up from the dead and this he says is explaining why the

Holy Spirit has arrived these things that you see and hear the manifestation of the Holy Spirit this is just evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the promised son of David the

Messiah whom you Israel killed crucified but God raised up and even brought him up to his right hand

Christ is now ascended he is indeed that King who sits on David's throne the critical promise that the new covenant has come to pass is indeed that David is reigning that David's son is reigning on David's throne how do we know that's the fact because the

Holy Spirit also crucial promise of the new covenant has arrived that's how we know these things

Peter is saying let's phone up the goat David and he says like John the

Baptist no there's someone greater someone greater track with the argument very carefully because there was a lot of Jews still waiting around for the son of David to reign on the throne in Jerusalem but look what

Peter says Peter says to his Jewish brethren welcome to the fulfillment of the promise he says verse 30

David was a prophet he knew that God has sworn an oath to him that the fruit of his body according to the flesh he would raise up the

Christ to sit on his throne did God raise up Christ don't we celebrate this not just once a year but every single day on Sunday that God has raised up Christ and where did

God raise up Christ to David's throne

David's throne verse 33 therefore being exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit he poured out this which you now see in here yeah so he's exalted he's enthroned didn't

David prophesy about this verse of 34 and 35 Psalm 110 the Lord said to my

Lord sit at my right hand I'll make your enemies your footstool where's Christ now where is he now he's not in the grave he's alive he's not he's not he's not here he's reigning from heaven his kingdom is not of this world it's in this world it's not of this world his throne is in heaven at the right hand of God that's where he's reigning and verse 36 therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly and how important would it be for the

Jew to know this assuredly to have it down pat concretized in their minds that the

Messiah has indeed come he has indeed fulfilled the promises he has indeed been raised from the dead he has indeed has the

Son of David ascended to the right hand of the Father to reign upon David's throne know this assuredly know this assuredly therefore based upon these promises and these events therefore know this assuredly

God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ why is the right hand of the

Father David's throne because David's throne was in Jerusalem here a

Shalom in Hebrew the city of Salem there at the city of Salem Abram met a king of righteousness named

Melchizedek who was the priest of God most high and there Melchizedek reigned in a racial priest of God most high gave tithes to him upon that very throne in that very

Jerusalem David reigned after Melchizedek reigned there David reigned there

Hebrews makes much of this but ultimately we're looking at Jerusalem we're working at Zion we're looking at the city that in Old Covenant shadows

God was declaring his desire his gracious merciful desire to be present among his people to gather his people to himself well

Old Covenant Jerusalem is under the judgment of God Peter is saying be saved from this perverse generation this

Old Covenant Jerusalem this earthly Jerusalem is going to be shattered and taken away but you know in the

New Testament there's a New Covenant Jerusalem there's a New Covenant Zion Hebrews says that when we are gathered to Christ we are gathered to that heavenly

Jerusalem we are gathered to that to that Zion and who reigns there in the city of God who is our mother above Paul says in Galatians 4 who reigns there in Jerusalem and in Zion on that throne on David's throne

Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ the Son of the

Living God he is both Lord and Christ Lord and Christ this was prophesied of in Psalm 110

Psalm 110 verses 1 through 4 David is a prophet and the inspiration of God he is given the opportunity to listen in to eavesdrop on a conversation in the

Trinity's fellowship between father and son the

Lord said to my Lord who is who was higher than David David reigns in Jerusalem the only throne higher than David's in Jerusalem is he's got to be the

Lord the Lord said to my Lord the the father says to the son sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool how do we know that's what it means because we're told that's what it means time and again in the

Bible sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool where does Christ sit he's at the right hand how long is he there until all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet praise the

Lord verse 2 the Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion see where does he rain from he rains from Zion I know where Zion is do you know where Zion is

I don't get on a plane to go there Christ will take me there rule in the midst of your enemies your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power and the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning you have the dew of your youth the

Lord has sworn and will not relent you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek what is the outworking of all of this

Peter says that the men and brethren of Israel men and brethren I want you to know assuredly that this historical person who has been made undeniably the central figure of all of history by the power of God at work in his life through his miracles his wonders and his preaching and his death and his resurrection and his ascension

Peter says I want you to know assuredly in such a way that you can never escape from it not even for a moment that God has made this

Jesus of Nazareth Lord and Christ sovereign and Savior the center of your life the center of my life the center of everything even all of history is still counted by his name here in the 2022nd year of our

Lord we must know assuredly that he is the

Christ imagine what a difficulty would be for us if we did not have this grace of God that God made it so clear in the outworking of history and the giving of his word if he had not made it so clear that we would know assuredly who his son is who our

Savior is who our sovereign is where would we be if we had an unsure word but we don't we have an airtight case we have we have such an airtight case that it's undeniable indeed it is inescapable and the only way that anybody can try to escape from the realities of the

Lordship of Christ over all is indeed to embrace satanic deception now we may say

I knew all this I knew that Jesus was from the tribe of Judah that he was a descendant of David and I knew that there were prophecies in the

Old Testament said he would rise again do you know what Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1 says therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard lest we drift away have you noticed any drifting lately not just the culture in your own heart to the things we have heard let us give more earnest attention let's pray father

I thank you thank you for the time you've given to us that we may rejoice in the truth of your word as you show to us the glories of your son