Acts 02_22-24 Preaching Christ (2)_The Supremacy of Christ

Read Acts 2:22-24 – Twins named Kimberly and Jessica attended a pre-school. One day the teacher was showing one of them how to write her name. She got to KIM and asked, “Does your mom call you Kim or Kimberly?” The girls answered, “My mother calls me Jessica.” Mistaken identity.

But nothing like missing the ID of the most pivotal person in history. That’s why at the heart of this first sermon of the new era, Peter preaches Jesus Christ – the one who has been at the core of every credible sermon since. We must have no mistaken identity there. We must preach Christ.

But that’s not the name Peter uses. He starts with, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Nothing he might have said could have stimulated more incredulity! The crowd would have thought: “Jesus of Nazareth? That Nazarene carpenter turned miracle-working rabbi, turned raving blasphemer. We got rid of him seven weeks ago. Why bring him up again?” Why indeed?

Peter’s answer is, “Bc you got Him all wrong. The one you killed, “God has made both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). “You mistook Him – badly. Who was He really? He was the long-awaited Messiah. More than that, He was God in the flesh who died to pay for the sins of the world, including your sin of killing Him.” With that, Peter gives a breathtaking presentation of the supremacy of the greatest life ever lived. Today we’ll look at His supremacy; next week the proof. Simple carpenter? Yes – but infinitely more than that.

The Supremacy of Jesus’ Person

A. Jesus is Man – It was easy to mistake Jesus’ identity. He looked like anyone else. Like the woman in a face who asked the hostess to watch for her husband. She said, “He has gray hair, eyeglasses, and has a hearing aid.” The hostess said, “Honey, today is senior day. They all look like that!” That was Jesus’ humanity – nothing abnormal in His appearance.

Lu 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.” He grew physically like we do; learned, like we do, learned social graces and spiritual disciplines, like we do. He got tired, thirsty, sweaty, and dusty. When cut, He bled. When ill, He got fevers. He walked and talked and ate and slept and eventually died, like any normal human being. He wasn’t even the most handsome guy around. Isa 53:2b: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”

He was so normal, when He preached His first sermon in His hometown, the people said in Mt 13:54b, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works? 55) Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? 56) And are not all his sisters with us? Where did this man get all these things?” So normal was He that when He applied Isaiah’s description of Messiah to Himself: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” (Lu 4:21b), they were so angry they tried to throw Him off a cliff outside of town (4:29). Jesus was every inch a man which caused most to miss the infinite worth of His person. They should have dug deeper. The Bible assures us that Jesus “committed no sin” (I Pet 2:22). But despite tangible evidence of His greatness, most gave a casual glance and missed the supremacy of His person.

B. Jesus is God – But being fully man, He was also fully God – two natures in one person. Hard for us, but harder for the Jews of Jesus’ time. They were strict monotheists – believers in one God. So when Jesus began to refer to God as His Father, they began to seek to kill Him bc “he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18b). Tho there are hints of God as Trinity in the OT, the Jews had no such concept. A God in heaven and another claiming deity on earth – didn’t compute.

Yet, over time, the disciples began to get it. Thus, Mt 16:13: “Now, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14) And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15) He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16) Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” [That was an astounding conclusion for the disciples. Not understanding, yet believing – and Jesus knows why] 17) And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” God revealed it, so they got it. They had ample evidence of Jesus’ humanity. But He was also God and therein lay the supreme nature of His being. He was like no one else – ever!

So Peter says in v. 24b: “it was not possible for him to be held by [death].” In His humanity, He could die; but bc of His divine nature, death could never hold Him. And Peter seals the deal that Jesus is both Messiah and God in v. 36: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him [shown Him to be] both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” They thought they knew Jesus -- enough to judge Him worthy of death. But they didn’t know Jesus. Until you know Him as God, you don’t know Him.

How serious is it to deny the deity of Jesus of Nazareth? It is to condemn oneself. I Jn 5:1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” But everyone who denies this is subject to God’s judgment. Jn 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” To miss the supremacy of Christ in His person as God is to miss eternal life.

Someone once asked the great statesman, Daniel Webster, “Mr. Webster, can you comprehend how JC can be both God and man?” Webster said, “No, sir, I cannot understand it, and I would be ashamed to acknowledge Christ as my Savior if I could comprehend it. He could be no greater than myself, and such is my conviction of my accountability to God, my sense of sinfulness before Him, and my knowledge of my own incapacity to recover myself, that I feel I need a superhuman Savior.” We all need a supernatural Savior. Thankfully, there is one, but only one. Jesus is supreme in His person.

II. The Supremacy of Jesus’ Passion

I was 15 years old, eating lunch at school, when a friend rushed up and said, “Kennedy’s been shot!” Our reaction was, “No – that’s not possible. This is the 20th century. Presidents don’t get shot anymore.” Such was the innocence of the time. But, he’d not only been shot, but killed. It was a tragedy, given his age, position and potential, a death that changed history -- a death like that of Lincoln or Caesar. And most people view Jesus’ death in the same light – an unfortunate tragedy of history – a talented man who died much too young.

But that’s not God’s perspective. Jesus’ death was not a tragedy. The tragedy in His case would have been if He had not died. [Repeat] His death had a divine purpose – a purpose that affects the whole human race. Its meaning far exceeds that of any other death that has ever occurred. Note two elements:

A. Planned by God – Jesus death was tragic, but not an accident -- and not without purpose! It was no surprise to God. 23) “This Jesus, [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” Not only did the Father know it was going to happen; He planned for it to happen.

Peter knew the minds of his listeners: “If this Jesus was Messiah, why was He a victim? Why didn’t He use His power to avoid this end? How can a dead Messiah be a conquering Messiah? This can’t be God’s plan, and He can’t be God’s Messiah.” Peter answers, this is the very thing that proves He was God’s Messiah. It all happened according “to the definite (ὁρίζω – clearly bounded) plan (βουλή – will, intention) and foreknowledge (πρόγνωσις – know before, predetermine) of God.” Peter could not have strung together a more forceful group of words to say, “God did this. And He planned it a long time ago.” How long? II Tim 1:9d “before the ages began.” This wasn’t Plan B. It was a plan Father and Son agreed before time began. Jesus’ death is in a whole other category from that of any other person – ever! The cross was no emergency measure flung out there by God when all else failed. There are no surprises in God’s world, and the death of His own Son was carefully planned and overseen by God Himself. But how could a loving God do such a thing?

There must have been an overwhelming necessity, right? And there was – a whole human race, separated from God by sin. God could destroy the whole race, or He could send Jesus as a substitute to pay sin’s penalty. One or the other had to happen. Thankfully, for your sake and mine, and most of all for His own name’s sake, He chose the cross. But it was all planned by the Father to be a death like no other to serve a purpose like no other.

B. Performed by Men – Okay – so God planned it. “But,” Peter says, “you did it. You’re responsible. You crucified Him..” Interesting how Peter places God’s sovereignty on one hand – God planned it all – against man’s responsibility on the other – you crucified him – with no attempt to reconcile them. A paradox in human terms. If God planned it, can we be responsible? Yes – it’s a rock-solid truth of Scripture. Even as Judas left to betray him – his own freedom of choice -- Jesus said in Lu 22:22: “For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined (God’s sovereignty), but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed (man’s choice).” The Bible never tries to explain the unexplainable. God owes us no explanations. But the lesson is simple – God’s sovereignty never erases man’s responsibility. The guilt for killing their own Messiah lay heavily upon Peter’s audience. And he told them so – not harshly, not to condemn, but in the hope they would repent.

But the guilt for Jesus’ death does not stop at Peter’s audience. We’re right there, too. Guilty as charged. Every sinner is there, nails in hand. Isa 53:5: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities. 6) . . . the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The sin of mankind sent Him there. I Jn 2:2: “He [by His death] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” The preacher himself was guilty. Peter knew it all too well. Who killed Jesus? We all did. Everyone who ever sinned. We must know ourselves as Jesus’ killers or we will never turn to Jesus as Savior. We all put Him there. We’re all guilty.

Toscanini loved to sing during rehearsals. Unconsciously. Usually not noticeable. But one day he got carried away. His voice could be heard above the instruments causing him to stop and exclaim, “For the love of God, who’s singing here?” Who was? He was! And so, Beloved, are we all guilty of the death of Christ. Our sin makes us as culpable as those who were there driving in the nails. And it’s so important to realize that, for until we see ourselves as helping crucify Jesus, we will never turn to Him as Savior. But that’s where Jesus death is supreme – for in the very act of dying, He was killing death.

III. The Supremacy of Jesus’ Purpose

So why would God ask His own Son to die? Very simple. So we would not have to. The need was cosmic. Isa 53: 6) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [There’s a universal sin problem; Jesus’ substitutionary death is the only answer. Therefore,] . . . 10) Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt.” Why did God will to crush His own Son? Because it was the only way we could be saved. Heb 2:14: Jesus became a man and purposely died “so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” In death Jesus paid for the sin of all who would believe, thus killing the power of death in our lives. And the proof? 24) “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death.” “You killed him; God raised him up.” What a powerful reversal. This is the supremacy of Jesus’ mission. He killed death.

This is what the Jews didn’t understand -- Messiah first had to die before He could reign. The cross before the crown, to provide forgiveness and new life to all who believe. It didn’t make Him less of a Messiah; it made Him the greatest of all possible Messiahs. He solved man’s greatest problems – physical and spiritual death – reversing the curse of sin for all who believe.

Peter later summarizes all of this beautifully in I Pet 1:18 “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” This is the supremacy of Christ. Thru His life, death and resurrection, Heb 7:25: “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God thru him.” No one else could ever make that offer. This is the supremacy of Christ.

Conc – So, the question we’re left with – have you been saved – to the uttermost? Completely, thoroughly, utterly, assuredly saved? Here’s what Jesus has done to make that possible. Imagine we’re standing 100 yards from a dam of water 10,000 miles high and 10,000 miles wide. Suddenly the dam breaks and a torrential flood of water comes crashing toward us. Just before it sweeps us away, the ground in front of us opens wide and swallows it up. That’s what Jesus did at the cross – drinking the full cup of God’s holy wrath against sin – downing every drop, turning the cup over and crying “It is finished!” That’s why He is supreme as Savior and Lord. Question is, have you accepted Him as your Savior and Lord? Let’s pray.

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