The Anatomy Of The Message - part 2

Please turn to the book of Acts as we return to Peter’s sermon in chapter 2 this morning…the first sermon preached in church history.

This message was preached almost 2,000 years ago, now.

Many good preachers have come and gone through those years, with a lot of great sermons preached.

But the message that was preached on the day of Pentecost, being both simple and deep, is the very foundation on which the Church is built.

It is the very foundation on which those great sermons were delivered.

Read Acts 2:14-36.

Last week was the first of a three part mini-series entitled The Anatomy Of The Message.

Last week, we looked at…

The Prophecy Fulfilled

verses 16-21, 25-31

What took place on the day of Pentecost was in itself an amazing event.

And one thing that made it amazing was that it was part of the fulfillment of prophecy.

Peter, in verses 16-21, references the Joel 2 prophecy concerning the initiation of the the last days through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on man.

The Holy Spirit’s arrival introduced new revelation to God’s people through visions and dreams, which became the written New Testament.

It also enabled the disciples to boldly proclaim the gospel in light of Old Testament prophecies which pointed to Christ, such as the Psalm 16 prophecy that Peter references in verses 25-31.

The mere fact that Peter, most likely an uneducated fisherman, is so familiar with OT prophecy and its connection to Jesus, is evidence alone of the Holy Spirit’s working in the life of the believer.

The sheer number of prophecies that are made, and fulfilled, concerning Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection point to Jesus as being a particularly special individual in history.

This lays the groundwork for the next part of the message:

The Person Proclaimed

verses 22-35

In this part of the message, Peter makes 4 statements while proclaiming “This Jesus” (a phrase used while making three of the four points) as the one whom fulfilled the prophecy concerning the Messiah.

This Jesus Performed Mighty Works

verse 22

The Gospel accounts are written so that we can know who Jesus is and what all He accomplished while on earth.

John 20:31 ESV

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

But those accounts are not merely debate material, words meant to be weighed in the balances to determine if what is being proposed is true.

Rather, the gospel accounts are eyewitness testimonies written for all the world to know what was seen and heard.

John 21:24 (ESV)

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

John makes it clear in this passage that he was around to see these great works that Jesus did.

He was around to see Jesus turn water into wine (John 2), heal an invalid man (John 5), feed five thousand with 5 loaves and 2 fish (John 6), give sight to a man born blind (John 9), etc.

Even within the framework of his own gospel, John brings forward the testimonies of others about what Jesus has done:

John 3:2 (ESV)

[Nicodemus] came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

John 4:29 (ESV)

“Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

John 5:15 (ESV)

The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

John 7:31 (ESV)

Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”

John 9:11 (ESV)

He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

John 11:45 (ESV)

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him

There are many more verses that can be looked at throughout the gospel accounts that show the mighty works that Jesus did, which attested to Him being the Messiah.

And, according to John himself, it is still not the entire story.

John 21:25 (ESV)

Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

This first statement in verse 22 is pretty amazing and packed thoroughly with one example after another. And these people listening to Peter preached seemingly witnessed at least some of the mighty works, which makes the next statement even more amazing to consider.

This Jesus Was Crucified

verse 23

After seeing all that Jesus had done, and what that meant, He was still rejected by the people and crucified.

But it was not the fact that He was put to death that is the amazing thing, it’s that the only way for it to happen was for Him to allow it to happen.

We marvel, not that Christ performed miracles, but rather that he performed so few. He who could have stormed the citadels of men with mighty battalions of angels let men spit on him and crucify him.

Oswald Chambers

Let that sink in for a second…

The objection to Jesus’ mighty works is that: ‘Jesus could not have been God’s agent, because he failed and God’s plans cannot fail.’

Peter’s answer was that it was God’s plan to hand Jesus over to lawless men.

God’s foreknowledge means more than His ability to anticipate the future.

It is another way of talking about His determination of events in advance, according to His own plan.

Matthew 26:24 (ESV)

The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.

And not only was it God’s plan for Jesus to die, but the humility of Jesus was on full display during the process, which was also predicted in the Old Testament.

Isaiah 53:7 (ESV)

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

What a jarring blow.

This Jesus, who God attested to being someone special, was delivered up by the same crowd that is listening to be crucified by lawless men.

The Messiah that they had long waited for, was "cut off” and has nothing (Daniel 9:26). Yet, we are not left without hope.

This Jesus Was Raised To Life

verses 24, 32

God’s verdict about Jesus is not seen in the cross, but in the resurrection.

God’s verdict was to vindicate Jesus.

By raising up Jesus, God was loosing the pangs of death.

This was not referring to the pain during the crucifixion. Rather, Jews commonly thought that the state of being dead, separation into a ghost and a corpse, was itself an agony. Of course, so would the process of decomposition of the body.

Yet, as we saw last week, David prophesied about the Messiah in Psalm 16, that He would not see corruption (Acts 2:27 “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.”)

Not only was Jesus raised up, but Peter and the other 120 disciples with him are witnesses of this fact.

Rather than go through each accounting of that in the gospels, let’s read the Apostle Paul’s summary in 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, which also includes him being listed among the number.

Over 500 people have seen the risen Jesus with their own two eyes.

And at least 24% of them were present while Peter preached.

And this Jesus, who performed mighty works, was crucified by lawless men, and raised to life by God…

This Jesus Is Lord and Christ

verse 36

This is the proclamation that we must make!

The two titles given to Jesus relate back to the psalm quoted in verses 25–31 (Psalm 16) and the prior claim of Joel 2:32, that whoever calls on the name of ‘the Lord’ will be saved (v. 21).

Jesus is the Lord on whom to call since he is the Messiah, resurrected by God in fulfillment of Psalm 16:8–11 and now exalted to his right hand in fulfillment of Psalm 110:1, “The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.””

The emphasis in the passage is that despite appearances or despite their actions, God’s view of the matter was very different.

To them, Jesus was a criminal, but he was the same person whom God had made Lord and Christ, just as the angels had announced in Luke 2:11 “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

It is most important that people hear and know who Jesus is.

This is why I cannot support things like "He Gets Us.”

There is a belief among people in society that it is enough to get the name of Jesus out there. But what Jesus is being put out there?

The one that must be proclaimed is the one who is both Lord and Christ.

The one that offer salvation to all who call on Him.

And the one who one day will return to judge the world.

Acts 17:30–31 (ESV)

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.