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Reading Acts 2:29-36 where Peter preaches at Pentecost that Christ was not only crucified by the plan of God, He was raised from the dead. Visit wwutt.com or all our videos!
God raised Jesus from the dead, raised him bodily from the dead. It was prophesied in the Old Testament. It was fulfilled in the New Testament. And all of us who are in Christ can know we will rise also when we understand the text.
This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Find all our videos online at www .wutt .com, as well as links to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. We are still in the middle of Peter's sermon at Pentecost. In Acts chapter two, I'm gonna begin reading in verse 29 and read through verse 36. Peter preached, "'Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.
Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
This Jesus, God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ.
This Jesus, whom you crucified. So we come back to verse 29 with Peter addressing the crowd as brothers, not in the sense that they are fellow Christians, but certainly in the sense that they are fellow Jews.
This was the first place that Jesus told his disciples to go and preach, that they would go into Jerusalem and then to the rest of Judea and to Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We read that in Acts chapter one, verse eight.
So it's not unusual for a Jew to refer to his fellow Jews as brothers. In fact, the apostle Paul in Romans chapter nine refers to fellow Jews as his fellow kinsmen. This would be equal to calling them brothers.
Sometimes we can be a little protective or guarded with that term, like you shouldn't call anyone a brother unless you know that they are a Christian. You know for sure that they're a Christian in the faith and then it's okay to call them brother.
And if they ever step out of line or they say something that might sound a little bit liberal or secular or something to that nature, well, then they're not a brother anymore. And so I can't call you brother because you can't verify it.
And we can be a little uppity, a little snobby with that term, we'll put it that way. But it's not like you can take that term and use it in vain or use it blasphemously. I suppose if you have a heart that believes every single person on earth is a child of God, inherently we're children of God, we're all going to heaven, then it probably is a misuse of you to say that everyone is a brother or everyone is a sister, but your doctrine is wrong elsewhere.
It's not in the use of that word. So it's not like Peter is stepping out of line here by calling his fellow Jews, though they not be fellow Christians, it's not unusual for him to call them brothers. These are men and women that he cares about.
That's exactly why he is right there in Jerusalem preaching this gospel that they may hear and repent of their sins, follow Jesus Christ and so be saved, this Christ whom they crucified. Now, keep in mind, we're coming into this section we're looking at today, verses 29 through 36.
We're coming into this on the tail end of Peter having just referenced David from the Psalms. And this was what we looked at yesterday, verses 25 through 28, where it says, a Psalm of David cited from Psalm 16.
I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. So given that Peter is quoting David here, still in the context of referencing David, he says, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David.
And typically we think of the patriarchs as being Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And when we reference the patriarchs, that's certainly true, but David is also a patriarch, for he is a forefather and a very significant forefather, one who is like the picture for the Jews of what they want their king to look like.
They knew that the Messiah that was going to come was gonna come from the line of David. And they all believe that he was gonna ascend to the throne of David and he would be as great as David. So they're looking for another David.
Peter is arguing before the Jews here that someone greater than David has come as he goes on. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
In other words, Peter is saying the body is still there. You can go there and you can look at it. And the possibility is that Peter was preaching at a site that was very close to where David's tomb was.
And so it seems appropriate for him to reference that. He could point in the direction that they all knew David's tomb was located in. It was somewhere there on Mount Zion. It wasn't in Jerusalem exactly, but it was on that hill that Jerusalem was built upon, known as Mount Zion in David's day.
Now that tomb, David's tomb had actually been plundered about 150 years before this sermon is taking place. John Hyrcanus in the second century, plundered David's tomb and stole out of it the riches that had been stored up there with the body of David.
And then Herod the Great did the same thing. So there wasn't anything of value in David's tomb anymore. The body of David may still have been there or it could have been moved to another site because of the plundering that had taken place and because the Jews held David in such high esteem, the greatest king that they ever had.
And again, Peter is saying here, we have a king even greater than David. David's tomb is still here. What's up with Jesus' tomb? Well, he doesn't have a tomb anymore. It's open and it's empty and he's gone.
David has a tomb, his body is in it, Jesus does not. Verse 30, being therefore a prophet. Now notice here that Peter refers to David as a prophet. We don't think of David as a prophet, but he was indeed.
The Lord may have spoken to David differently than he spoke to Samuel or to Nathan, but nevertheless, God did speak to David. David prophesied, he was a prophet since we see so many prophecies in the Psalms concerning Christ, that Christ fulfilled.
I believe it was Joel Beek I was reading recently and he talked about the four most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament. The four Old Testament books that are quoted the most in the New Testament and they include the Psalms, Isaiah, Deuteronomy and Genesis in that order.
And in fact, those four books, those four Old Testament books were also the most influential in the Reformation. The Reformers referred heavily to passages in those four books also as the New Testament does.
And so here, Peter is making reference back to the Psalms, a Psalm concerning Christ, which David wrote, therefore that makes David a prophet. And he didn't just do this once, he did this multiple times throughout his Psalms.
We have something like 70 different references from the Psalms in the New Testament. And I think that's just direct references, not counting subtle references or things that, Paul may have written that were directly inspired by the Psalms, but he may not have been directly quoting the Psalms.
That might be a different reference altogether, but 70 direct references from the Psalms that we have here in the New Testament. So going on, David says that, or I'm sorry, Peter says that David was a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with him an oath that he would set one of his descendants on his throne.
God would set one of David's descendants on his throne. I think it's in 2 Samuel 7 that we read the Davidic covenant, God's covenant with David, where he says to him, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom.
And that's Christ. Jesus came from the lineage of David. Jesus sits enthroned on high because he's from David's lineage. He continues that throne God had established in Israel, but now it's no longer on earth, it is in heaven.
And on that throne that Christ is sitting upon, it is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant that God made with David. And Peter even references that here because he goes on in verse 33 to say, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God.
And that's all in the context of this promise, this reference back to the covenant with David, that from his line, he would have an heir to the throne, an eternal heir to that throne. So verse 31, he foresaw, David foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades.
I mean, this is Peter explaining Psalm 16, which he quoted back in verses 25 through 28. Now he's doing expository. He's doing an expository sermon here, explaining what that Psalm meant. In that Psalm, Peter is preaching, David saw, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, which is the grave, that word just simply meaning the grave, nor did his flesh see corruption.
Of course, Hades sometimes is translated as hell, but it's the word that was used in reference to the grave. It was not a spiritual location after death. It was where the body simply went. Now, back in verse 26, or sorry, verse 27, it says, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades.
Well, if Hades is not a place where the soul goes, then why is it that David would say that? Well, he means that when I die, my soul is not just gonna be left there. It's not gonna be left without a home.
It's not gonna be left in darkness with nowhere to go. It will not be abandoned to Hades. Rather, the soul of David who trusted in the Lord will be with the Lord. That's simply all that David is saying there.
And when we die, our spirit goes to be with God. Those who are not in Christ, their spirit goes to a place of torment, which is still awaiting the final judgment when at the great white throne of judgment that we read about in Matthew 25 and in the book of Revelation, those who did not know Christ will be cast into the lake of burning fire and sulfur, which had been prepared for the devil and his angels.
So then going on, come back to verse 31 again. David foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. His soul was not abandoned to nowhere, nor did his flesh see corruption.
Where did the soul of Christ go? The spirit that was within him, where did it go? Well, it went back to the father. As what Jesus said to the thief on the cross next to him, the one that said, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus said, I tell you this day, you will be with me in paradise. So as Christ went back to the father awaiting the resurrection of his body, so the thief that died next to him, to whom Jesus showed mercy, likewise went to heaven with him.
So Jesus' flesh did not see corruption. He did not become all stinky and gross in the tomb in which he was buried, but he was raised to life. He experienced a bodily resurrection. It was not a spiritual resurrection, was not just the soul came out, but the body remained, or the body was indeed stolen.
And yet Jesus' soul remained or spirit remained as he appeared to his disciples. The Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus actually disappeared from his tomb and was reassembled outside the tomb. No, this was a bodily resurrection.
He was raised from the dead. He came out of the tomb. He showed himself in his body to his disciples, which Peter says we are witnesses to all of these things. Christ's flesh did not see corruption. This was a bodily resurrection.
This Jesus, God raised up. And of that, we all are witnesses. That was verse 32. Verse 33 now, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God. Again, all in context with this referencing that Peter had made to David.
David knew by the oath that God swore to him that he would see one of his descendants on his throne, or God would set one of David's descendants on his throne. And that is Christ being therefore exalted to the right hand of God.
There's the fulfillment of that oath that God made with David. And having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. The father has given the son even the Holy Spirit to guide according to his will.
As Christ is submitted to the father, so the Holy Spirit is also submitted to Christ. And the Holy Spirit dwells within us who are the church of Christ. It is through the Holy Spirit that we are being matured and we are being grown and we are being shaped into the image of Christ.
And all of this is being done in submission to the will of Jesus, who is in submission to the will of his father. So it is true that in Trinitarian theology, that the father and son and the Holy Spirit are all co-equal, co-eternal without beginning, without end, but Jesus willingly submits to the father, the son submits to the father, and the spirit has willingly submitted to the son.
The father having given the Holy Spirit to him, Christ pours out the Holy Spirit that is being witnessed there at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has been poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing, Peter says in verse 33.
So now going on to verse 34, still talking about David. For David did not ascend into the heavens. David isn't the one that ascended into the heavens. Jesus is the one who ascended into the heavens. Jesus affirms that he is the greatest king because David didn't ascend into heaven, Jesus did.
Once again, David's tomb right over there, right? Somebody show me where the body of Jesus is. You don't know, it isn't there. It's not here anymore. It isn't on earth. It has ascended to heaven where it is seated at the right hand of God.
For David did not ascend into the heavens. That's not what he did, but instead he said, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Now coming back again to the start of verse 34, where it says for David did not ascend into the heavens.
It's not that David's soul didn't go to be with God. It's just that his body and soul did not lift off of the earth and rise up into the heavens as Jesus did right before the very eyes of his own disciples.
David died and was buried. We have that talked about in first Kings. He was laid with his fathers while his son Solomon then continued his reign. David did not ascend bodily and spirit into the heavens.
Jesus did. David said, the Lord said to my Lord, Yahweh said to Yahweh, the father said to the son, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies, your footstool. So Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now, until I make your enemies, your footstool, that's when the time will be completed according to the dates that have been fixed by the father. And he sends the son back and the son brings an end to all things in his second coming, makes his enemies, his footstool.
That's what that is in reference to. So now verse 36, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. So remember that this particular section we've been looking at today, verses 29 through 36 began with Peter saying, I have confidence that David died and he was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
And he ends this particular argument by saying, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain, I have evidence, I can present to you that David is dead and he is here. You have seen evidence that Christ was sent by God, he performed these miracles among you, he was raised from the dead, his tomb is empty, he is ascended into heaven, he is seated at God's right hand, you have seen this.
So therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Coming back to a statement that we read yesterday in verse 23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
This was all according to God's sovereign decree. It is even prophesied about in the Psalms that he was gonna die, but he was gonna be raised again. However, you who crucified him are still responsible for rejecting the son of God.
And Peter is saying to them in this sermon, you have this moment now to repent. God is being gracious towards you, you can turn from your sin, you can follow him and you will be saved. And that's the part that we get to tomorrow as we conclude this sermon at Pentecost in the remainder of Acts chapter two.
Let us finish our lesson today with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you so much for your word once again, that we may know you, we may know your plan, we may see that you have decreed something from before the foundation of the world and you will bring it to fulfillment, even showing us the last page, what we read in the book of Revelation, when Christ returns and all things will be set right.
Once again, Christ will judge his enemies, he will make them his footstool. And for us who have believed in Christ, we will become fellow heirs of his eternal kingdom. How gracious and how wonderful you are.
So help us to praise your name today, help us to have confidence in your promises that every one of them will be fulfilled if we are in Christ and let us not despair in matters that come our way that are beyond our control, but we continue to entrust ourselves who is in control of all things, for you have ordained all things.
We pray this in your holy one's name, Jesus Christ, our savior, amen.
Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.
Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.