The Power and Promise of the Resurrection- Acts 2:24-36

The Resurrection Ends Death’s Agony

And now if you have your Bibles open to Acts chapter 2, that's the passage you're going to be looking at this morning, Acts 2.

This is the….

Oh, for those of you who are watching at home, this is the continuation of last week's. Sorry, for those of you who are watching at home, they just did something really weird.

In the audience.

This is the continuation of the passage we were looking at last week here in Acts chapter.

2.

And the word of the day today is resurrection, resurrection. So for the kids, that's the word of the day. Keep track of that. And kids, if you have not yet found the bucket of candy that your parents have, it might be time to call Child Protective Services because they've got it somewhere.

Acts chapter 2, and we're going to…. Last week we looked at verses 22 and 23, and we're starting today at verse 24 through verse 36, which we read earlier. And again, the context to set this up is the day of Pentecost, it's after the resurrection of Christ, it's after His ascension into heaven, and Peter sees a crowd at the south end of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

And there is this large crowd gathered there to celebrate Pentecost, and in accordance with the promise that God gave to the children of Israel, God poured out His Holy Spirit upon those who were there that day.

And there was tongues and the people who were gathered together there heard the tongues and they thought that the apostles, which were speaking a language they had never learned or studied and had never acquired, they just spoke in these foreign languages, they thought that these were the apostles being drunk at 9 o 'clock in the morning.

And Peter got up to preach a sermon, he corrected that misunderstanding of that and quoted from the prophet Joel to show them that this is indeed what God had promised, the pouring out of His Spirit. Not that everything in Joel chapter 2 was accomplished or fulfilled on that day, but the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled on that day.

So Peter in preaching his Pentecost Day sermon, first thing he does is indict the Jews for their crime of rejecting the Messiah. That's verses 22 and 23, men of Israel listen to these words, Jesus of Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst.

Just as you yourselves know, this man, delivered over by the predetermined plan of foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. And there's an indictment there upon them for their crime of rejecting the Messiah and crucifying the Son of God.

And now Peter transitions to the resurrection of Christ in verse 24, that God raised him up again putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. And now we're going to see that the resurrection of Christ does three things, three things in this passage that we're going to look at this morning.

First in verse 24, it puts or it ends the agony of death or puts an end to the agony of death. The second thing is it fulfills Scripture, Old Testament Scripture verses 25 to 32 and then in verses 33 to 36, it is a promise or a guarantee of judgment.

The resurrection of Christ ended the agony of death, it fulfills Scripture and it guarantees a judgment that is to come. And just as a clarification, that's not all that the resurrection of Christ does.

The resurrection of Christ does dozens of other things. It secures our justification, it declares him to be the Son of God, it validates his claims, it secures our sanctification, it demonstrates the Father's approval of his sacrifice, it fulfills his word, it secures our glorification, it secures our justification, it proves his deity, it proves him to be the Son of God, it does all of those things and many, many more.

But today we're just looking at these three things that really are the focus of Peter's message in Acts 2. It puts an end to the agony of death, it fulfills Scripture and then it guarantees that there is a judgment that is to come.

So first it puts an end to the agony of death, verse 24. Look at it again, but God raised him up again putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in his power. And notice the contrast, the immediate contrast.

You did this, you nailed the Son of God to a cross by the hands of godless men, but God raised him up. Now there's an intentional contrast here between the action of God and the action of these rebellious hard-hearted Jews who had rejected their Messiah and nailed him to a cross by the hand of the Romans.

And Peter immediately draws this contrast in order to demonstrate that they had done something against God that God has overcome in the resurrection. You put him to death, but God raised him up. That puts them in opposition to God really as God's enemies.

And in doing so, God in raising Christ up put an end to the agony of death. The word agony, the word that is translated there, the word agony is sometimes translated birth pains or labor pains, in fact it's only used four times in all of the New Testament.

And twice it is translated as birth pains, Matthew 24 and Mark 13. Once it is translated labor pains in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, and here it is translated as agony. And it describes the agony of something holding back what cannot be held back.

So it's a vivid picture of a woman who's about to give birth and the pains and the agony that goes with that cannot keep back the Lord Jesus Christ in the grave. He must come forth. He has to put an end to death.

Death could not hold him, as the hymn says, death in vain forbids him to rise. It couldn't keep him. The grave could not keep him and death could not hold him.

Why?

Because like a woman in labor, it must give birth to life. It must bring forth life. And that's I think the vivid picture that's used there with that term agony. And in what ways is agony, is death agony?

Death is agony because of its pain. Sometimes oftentimes pain accompanies death and that's something that contributes to the fear of death. We don't, I don't necessarily fear what is on, I don't fear at all what is on the other side of death, but I sometimes fear the process of death.

And so death has a certain agony attached with it because of the pain. I don't know how I'm going to die. Am I going to die quickly in a car accident, from an aneurysm, in my sleep, passing peacefully at night, or will I die from a long, protracted, drawn out, painful illness?

I don't know which one that's going to be. But death can be accompanied sometimes with great pain. There's also a fear of death as people are held in the agony of the fear of death. The book of Hebrews describes him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and he held us in slavery all of our lives because we lived in fear of death.

And if you just look around the world at what's going on, you can see unbelievers living in the panic and fear of death, can you not? I mean just nothing like a global pandemic to make people realize how short their lives are, how temporary this world is, how everything can be taken from us in a moment, and how easily we can get sick and die from something that we can't even see.

And people are living in constant fear of death. Now for us as Christians, we don't necessarily need to fear death. For us, death is not the end. For us, death is a great thing. But there are people in this world, most unbelievers are ruled by a fear of death.

They live as a slave to that fear. There's an agony there just with the fear of death itself, and the uncertainty of death. Unbelievers live with the agony of the uncertainty of death, that they don't know what's going to happen on the other side of it.

They hope that they might know, each of them has probably an idea of what they think is going to happen on the other side of the grave. They might think that God's going to weigh their good deeds and their bad deeds and reward them accordingly or punish them accordingly, and eventually most unbelievers probably think they're relatively good people and that they're going to end up going to heaven when they.

Die.

At least they hope that that's what's going to happen. If there is a heaven or a hell, each of them has their own idea of what the afterlife is going to bring or even if there is an afterlife. But ultimately since they have no objective standard or objective revelation by which they're going, it's all a crapshoot for them.

They don't know whether it's going to be good or bad. They have no certainty regarding the future or what happens after death at all. So one of the agonies of death is the uncertainty that accompanies it and of course the permanence that accompanies it.

Death threatens to take from the unbeliever everything they hold dear. All of the best things they have ever enjoyed and all of the best things that they could ever hope to enjoy, death threatens to rob them of all of it.

I woke up the other night, and this is, I mean I'm not speaking as an unbeliever but as a believer. I want you to translate this into the mentality of an unbeliever. I woke up the other night, well I guess it was early morning, it was really early in the morning, and a thought occurred to me.

I thought what is going to happen when I die, what is going to happen to my library? All of the books that I have accumulated and I bought and I've read, some of them, most of them, a lot of them I've read, not most of them, a lot of them I've read, some of them I won't end up reading before I die, and I have books in there that I've spent like a hundred dollars on a set, a volume of certain books that are resources and these are like my friends, they're my companions, I spend all of my days with them, looking around and admiring them and I think it's great and I have them catalogued and I love them, I pull them off the shelf and I look at them, I smell them, I enjoy them, what's going to happen to all of my friends when I die?

Is the church going to have a fire sale and get rid of all of Pastor Jim's old books and put them out on a table and let people take what they want or put some in the church library and give the rest or will they leave them in my office and let the next pastor take over and just have all of my books as one big group of them or will my kids want them and fight over them, will my kids take some of them and divide them up, will my kids take some of them and throw the rest of them away?

Imagine that you had a house, imagine that you had 1 ,400 cats and you were going to die and you wondered to yourself, what's going to happen to all of my cats when I die? Are they going to be taken down to the shelter and executed, thrown away, or will they be divvied up amongst my friends, is anybody going to care for them, will they love my cats as much as I love my cats?

So this kept me up for like 45 minutes in my head as I was agonizing over this and it dawned on me that death is going to take from me my library and it's all going to go to somebody else. Now imagine that you're an unbeliever and then suddenly you realize that death is going to take from you not just your library but your life and your health and really everything, everything you've built, everything you've acquired and at the end you'd say like Solomon, it's vanity, it's vanity, it's all this vanity.

Who knows whether the person I give all of this to is going to be a wise man or a fool, what will he do with what I have acquired? So that's part of the agony of death, it's just the uncertainty of what's going to happen afterwards as it takes everything from us.

But for a believer to live as Christ and to die is gain. So I may lose a library but what do I gain? I gain all of the best things that I have never received in this life. Death for the believer is not the loss of anything, it's the gain of everything.

We get everything that we had in this life and a hundred times more, we get all of it added to us at the end plus we get the kingdom and we get glory and we get glorified bodies that are free of disease and death for the believer to live as Christ and to die as gain.

This is why the author of Hebrews says through death Christ rendered powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil because he held us in subjection to slavery all of our lives through that fear of death.

1 Corinthians 15, Paul finally after talking about the perishable putting on the imperishable says death is swallowed up in victory, oh death where is your victory, oh death where is your sting? For the believer death is like a wasp without a stinger, you look at it and initially you're terrified and you think you should be scared of that but then as you think about it it's just a wasp without a stinger, it can't do anything to me, it can't hurt me, it can't harm me, it's completely powerless, it's completely unable to do me any harm whatsoever.

And so initially it looks fearful, it looks frightful but the sting has been taken out of death for the Christian but not for the unbeliever. And so Peter says it is impossible for God or for Christ to be held in the power of death because He must rise and He must put an end to the agony of death.

Christ could not be held in this power because He Himself is the Lord of life and has power over death and of course Jesus had the power over the timing and the manner even of His own death. He said, I lay down my life, nobody takes it from me.

I lay it down and I take it up again. I have power to lay it down, I have power to take it up again. And so it had to happen that He would rise from the dead and this is something that Peter would have understood in hindsight but obviously not something that Peter would have understood on the day of the crucifixion.

Peter was not thinking as he saw Jesus on the cross, Peter was not thinking, oh this is necessary for this to happen so that He could rise again and put an end to the agony of death. None of that would have gone through Peter's mind at all.

He didn't understand that until it was in hindsight. When Christ rose from the dead and he saw Him physically then Peter understood it was impossible for death to hold Him in its power. Then it would have been a moment of victory for Peter and not a moment of defeat.

The Resurrection Fulfills Old Testament Prophecy

Second the resurrection of Christ fulfills prophecy and this is verses 25 through verse.

32.

And you'll notice in verse 25 that Peter begins to quote from Psalm 16 verses 8 through 11. And this is the clearest promise of the resurrection of the Messiah in all of the Old Testament. It's not the only place where the resurrection is promised or alluded to or mentioned but it is the clearest promise of a resurrected Messiah.

Acts chapter 2 beginning at verse 25, for David says of Him, I saw the Lord always in my presence. He's at my right hand so that I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exalted moreover my flesh also will live in hope because you will not abandon my soul to Aedes nor allow your Holy One to undergo.

Decay.

You have made known to me the way of life and you will make me full of gladness with your presence. Now there's no passage in the Old Testament that says the Messiah will die and will three days rise again.

There's no prophecy that speaks of that. That's why I say this is the clearest Old Testament prophecy or prediction of a resurrection. There are other passages like Psalm 22 where the death of the Messiah is described in graphic detail and then at the end of the Psalm, David the Psalmist says that he will enjoy the prosperity or the spoil of that death.

And there's Isaiah 53 where Isaiah describes the death in graphic detail that he was crushed for our iniquities, he was bruised in our stead and then at the end of that it says he will see his offspring and rejoice in it and the idea there is that the Messiah would do two things.

He would die and suffer and would also experience and see the results and the fruit of that and live again. So Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and here in Psalm 16 but Psalm 16 was always something that perplexed Old Testament Jews because they would read Psalm 16 and they would wonder of whom is David speaking?

Is he speaking of himself or is he speaking of somebody else? And they wouldn't have known that. They couldn't have known that because you'll notice that David says or Psalm 16 says because you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor allow your holy one to undergo decay.

So it is as if David is describing God's promise of his own resurrection and God's promise that David would never suffer decay. And so the Jews were kind of curious as to who David was speaking of and how this was going to come about.

How was it that God would allow his holy one to die but never to suffer decay? How would that be fulfilled and of whom was David speaking, himself or someone else? Well Peter answers that when he says in verse 29, brethren I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

In Jerusalem near the Temple Mount, near the Western Wall, there is a little synagogue there and you would think that the synagogue would be as big as the room that we're sitting in here but it's not.

It's just a small little synagogue that's not much bigger than my office. And that doesn't mean that my office is big. It just means it's not much bigger than my office. And the casket of David is in there.

Now whether the bones of David are actually in there or not, I don't know. I don't know when the last time anybody ever opened those up. But that's the tomb of David. He rests and his bones lie in a state.

In Jerusalem you can go in there and you can be within arm's distance and touch the casket in which David lies. So Peter is saying, brethren, the patriarch David, he died and his tomb is with us to this day.

You can walk at that time to the tomb of David and see his place of burial there. So obviously Peter's argument is, obviously this could not have been something that David said concerning himself because he died and he suffered decay and he's still dead.

But, Peter says, David was speaking prophetically. Look at verse 29. His tomb, he's buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Verse 30, and so because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne.

So Peter's answer of their dilemma, their perplexity over that passage is that David was not speaking of himself when he says you will not allow your holy one, myself, to undergo.

Decay.

David was speaking as a prophet, speaking prophetically, looking forward to somebody.

Else.

And he was speaking as prophets often did of describing themselves, but really of speaking of somebody else. And you see this in Psalm 22 when David says, all my bones were out of joint. They gambled for my garments.

My tongue cleaved to the roof of my mouth. I was pierced and they pierced me and they mocked me and said, if you trust in God, let God deliver him. David described himself being in that stead, but Psalm 22 really doesn't describe David.

David actually was looking forward to a greater fulfillment of that Psalm, Psalm 22, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered that death. So David being a prophet in Psalm 16 does the exact same thing.

Describing somebody else, David spoke prophetically as if he were the one that was doing the speaking. So he says in verse 27, because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your holy one to undergo decay.

And so David's describing the Messiah and his resurrection, but in terms as if it was he himself who was going to be the one who would not suffer decay. Because he was a prophet, he could do that. It was a prophetic device.

And notice that David or Peter quotes David as being confident because God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne. Verse 30, because God had promised to seat one of David's sons on his throne, and you notice this is part of the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel chapter 7.

It's also described by the psalmist in Psalm 89 where he spends an entire psalm worshiping God because of the promises made to David. Because God had promised to David to seat one of his descendants on his throne, David knew that that descendant would rule and reign on his throne forever.

And if that descendant was going to rule and reign on his throne forever, it would require.

Something.

It would require physical resurrection. Because how could one of David's descendants reign and rule forever if he was subject to.

Death?

The only way that could happen is if one of David's descendants suffered death and then rose again and then took that throne. Then he could rule and reign forever. So Peter's argument is because David knew that God had promised to seat one of his descendants on his throne to rule and reign forever, one of David's descendants had to.

It must happen in order for God to fulfill that promise. So David spoke prophetically of Christ and this Jesus God has raised up. Look at verse 32. This Jesus God has raised up again to which we are all witnesses.

And Peter at that time is speaking to thousands of people, at least 3 ,000 people who got saved.

That day.

And I would assume that not everybody in the crowd got saved so there could have been hundreds or even thousands more that heard Peter that day. And all of the apostles who were there were the witnesses of that resurrection.

And Peter's able to say this Jesus, remember whom you delivered over to godless men and put to death on a cross, this Jesus God has raised up to which we are all witnesses. You can imagine, and I don't think that this is an overstatement, that inside the city of Jerusalem on Pentecost weekend, the resurrection being only seven weeks prior to that, that the resurrection of Christ and the empty tomb would have been one of the worst kept secrets in all of Jerusalem.

Because some of those people who were there at Pentecost would have stayed between Passover and Pentecost because some of those people would have traveled, in fact Acts chapter 2 says there were people there, there were Medes and there were Egyptians, there were people with all of these different dialects who had come from all over the Roman Empire.

And it was customary for many Jews, because it would take say two weeks to get from where they lived all the way into the city of Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, they would stay for the celebration of Pentecost and then they would go home.

So they would be in Jerusalem for several weeks, all of those weeks. So some of those people had been in Jerusalem for all of those weeks after there had been an empty tomb and there was talk of angels appearing and people talking about seeing Jesus and the Roman authorities circulating the story that the disciples had stole the body and those Roman soldiers were circulating that story and anybody could walk, it's about a 15 minute walk from the Pentecost square to the garden tomb, anybody could walk from that area to the garden tomb to see indeed if the tomb was empty.

And so all of those rumors about an empty tomb and a risen savior and angels appearing and the glory of Christ and the disciples meeting and they've seen him and we're eyewitnesses, all of that would have been circulating in Jerusalem during those seven weeks prior to Pentecost.

And then Peter stands up and says we're witnesses of the resurrection of Christ, an eyewitness. Now if the disciples had only seen an empty tomb they never would have assumed that Christ was risen from the dead, they'd only seen an empty tomb.

Peter would never have assumed that, it wasn't until they saw Christ risen from the dead they actually saw him raised and they saw him and like Thomas put his fingers into his side and saw the wounds in his hand, it wasn't until they saw the visible evidence of it that many of them believed, they never would have assumed it just from the empty tomb itself.

And so Peter says we are all witnesses of this and Christ presented himself alive with many convincing proofs, Acts 1 says, convincing them that he was victor over death, that he was the one that was described in Acts chapter 16.

The Resurrection Guarantees Judgment

And the third thing, the resurrection of Christ is a guarantee of judgment, look at verse 34, sorry verse 33, therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear.

For it was not David who ascended into heaven but he himself says the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

Verse 33 says that the one who has been raised has also been exalted and this is often times something that we leave out of our gospel presentation and our presentation of the resurrection of Christ and we do it really without thinking of it, the exaltation of Christ, we leave that out.

And yet the disciples never did, these two things were joined together in the minds and the hearts of the disciples that he who was raised from the dead is also exalted to the right hand of the Father.

Colossians chapter 3 verse 1, Paul says if you have been raised with Christ keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God because we have been raised spiritually with him, positionally with him from the dead, his resurrection is our resurrection because of that we can fix our minds on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Hebrews 10, 12 he having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God. First Peter 3, 22 who is at the right hand of God having gone into heaven after angels and authorities and powers have been subjected to him.

Acts 5 verse 31, he is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and savior to grant repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. The resurrection of Christ is inseparably linked to his exaltation.

The one who is raised has been seated at the Father's right hand from where he will come again to rule and to reign and to judge his enemies and this is what is predicted in Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, well look at Peter's argument in verse 34, it was not David who ascended into heaven, right?

He died, he was buried and his tomb is with us to this day so it's not David who ascended into heaven but David said of him, the Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

What you have in Psalm 110 is this ascension or exaltation Psalm where the Father says to the Son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. That's an act of judgment. If the Lord says to our Lord, if the Father says to the Son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet, we can know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ and this Lord who sits at our Lord's right hand, he will come again when all of his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

The identity of Jesus Christ is proven by the fact that he has been raised from the dead, that he is in fact the Lord and so the Father in Psalm 110 says to the Son, sit at my right hand and I will make all your enemies a footstool for your feet.

Now I want you to put yourself in the shoes of those first century Jews who had 50 days earlier, a little bit more than that actually, had called for the crucifixion and the blood of their Messiah. That they had stood there in Pilate's courtyard and said, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be upon us and our children.

And they had rejected their Messiah and turned against him and called out for his blood and asked for a murderer to be granted and released to them instead of Christ. So they had rejected their Messiah and killed the Son of God and now imagine Peter standing up and saying, this Jesus whom you crucified, God has raised him up and made him both Lord and Christ and said to him, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.

For your feet.

Now ask yourself, them sitting there listening to that, they would have had to have realized that they were the enemies that are being described in that passage. Until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

If you're one of those first century Jews and you have to ask yourself, am I an enemy of God or an ally of God? Which would you be if you had just crucified the Son of God?

You're an enemy.

So what is Peter doing? He is saying to them, this one whom you crucified has been raised to the right hand of the Father and he will return. He will come again. And when he does, he is coming after his enemies.

You crucified him, so which are you, an enemy or an ally? The truth is that they were enemies of God. And all of us because of our sin, we're enemies of God. We're born at enmity with him. Dead in our trespasses and sins, at war and at enmity against God.

Hostile in our minds against him through wicked works. Our hearts are hostile and we are unable to submit ourselves to the law of God or to the demands of God. We are at war with him. We are his enemies.

He died for not those who loved him, but those whom he loved first, who were at the time that Christ died for us, we were his enemies. He died and rose again for those who were at war against him. And it is because of our sin that we are enemies of God.

And if you are an unbeliever, you are an enemy of God in your mind through wicked works. And all of your wrath, all of his wrath is stored up against you. And he knows all of your sins and your trespasses.

Your lying, your evil deeds, your lust, your adultery, your fornication, your hatred, your idolatry, your greed, your selfishness, gossip, slander, disobedient to parents, the whole.

List.

God knows it all. And you're an enemy of God because of those sins. And you are at war with him. God offers you peace and reconciliation and forgiveness through the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And he demands, the terms of his surrender are repentance and faith. And you must turn from your sin and believe upon Jesus Christ. And God's promise to you is that if you do that, you will be saved. He is both savior and he is judge.

And the resurrection is the guarantee of a judgment that is to come. Paul said in Acts chapter 17 that God has overlooked all the times of ignorance, but he now commands all men everywhere to repent because God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.

And he has furnished proof to all men by raising that judge from the dead. He is the one who has been appointed as the savior of all who will believe and the judge of all who will not. And because he is risen, judgment is certain, salvation is available, and if you are in Jesus Christ, then the resurrection of Jesus Christ is your promise of salvation, of righteousness and forgiveness of the kingdom and of salvation.

And if you are not in Jesus Christ, then the resurrection of Jesus Christ is God's promise to you that there is a judgment that is to come and you will not escape it. If death could not hold him, you will not escape him.

That is a promise. If he is risen from the dead, you will not escape him and death will not hide you from him if you're an unbeliever. God commands you this day to turn from your sin and your rebellion, to lay down your arms, to cease with your hostility against God, and believe upon him.