Jesus: Lord and Christ

Good morning Church! If you have your Bible and I hope that you do, please turn with me to Acts 2. We are halfway through our study of Pentecost as we've discussed what the purpose of Pentecost is in redemptive history. At Pentecost, the disciples began to speak in different languages they had never learned. A sound like a mighty rushing wind filled the house and tongues of fire rested on believers. Outside, thousands of Jews from all over the Roman Empire gathered in confusion and amazement.

The Bible says that the people were asking, "What does this mean?" Last week Peter stood and answered that question. He said the people aren't drunk, but this is a fulfillment of the end times and this is the outpouring of God's Spirit on all kinds of people. God is faithful in keeping His promises! The Holy Spirit had come because Christ had ascended and the final chapter of redemptive history had begun.

But Peter is not finished, in fact Peter was just beginning! I want you to know that Pentecost was never the final point. The Holy Spirit did not come merely to amaze people or create spiritual excitement. The Spirit came to point people to Someone. Peter does not stay focused on the events of the morning but rather, He moves immediately from "What happened?" to "Who made it happen?"

And his answer shocked Jerusalem. The Christ you rejected is the Lord who God vindicated. Today we are going to see four ways God Himself vindicated Jesus Christ. Let's stand in honor of God's Word as we read Acts 2:22–36

Acts 2:22–36 ESV

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 29 “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. 30 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, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 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. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, 35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’ 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.”

Pentecost is distinctly focused on Jesus Christ. It's not focused on tongues.

It is the arrival of the Holy Spirit, but that doesn't even seem to be the main focus. Imagine if you would the city of Jerusalem overflowing with Jewish families from all over the Roman Empire. Consider the sights and smells, the atmosphere is electric with religious fervor! The sound of wind begins to emanate from a house, and if you've ever been around wind, you know how loud it can be.

I remember Amber and I were driving through Tennessee the night when Joplin happened. At the hotel, the wind was so loud that we thought it was tornado sirens going off! But that was simply the wind howling outside. The people in Jerusalem heard this and asked, "What does this mean?" and Peter stands and says, "I'll tell you what this means. It means the Messiah has come and you crucified Him." That's Peter's sermon in a nutshell.

And Peter's big point? God Himself vindicated Jesus. And Peter presents four evidences

God Attested Jesus

That word “attested” means to demonstrate to be true or quality. It means clearly displayed. Who displayed what Peter is talking about? God Almighty! The same God that these people say they believe in.

God publicly testified who Jesus was during His earthly ministry. Think about it. Peter gets everyone's attention and says "Men of Israel, hear these words!" No apology. No softening. Then Peter names Jesus of Nazareth. Someone the Jews would have said was cursed! Someone who was accused by Caiaphas and the entire Sanhedrin of blasphemy. Jesus of Nazareth who was accused of performing miracles by the power of Beelzebub. God attested Him.

How? Not through entertainment or spectacle, but by mighty works, wonders, and signs. These are Jesus’ divine credentials.

Think about an official seal or signature. Anyone can type up a letter or make a claim. Just by way of reminder, sometimes we get people that email our staff and ask for gift cards or money and sign my name to it. Please don’t fall for that, okay? Just call me and ask. I promise I will never ask you to give me gift cards or anything. But you know how you know when something is authentic? It’s when authority places its seal upon something, it bears authentication. That is what Christ’s miracles were. They were not entertainment. They were God's seal on His Son.

The things that the Lord did on earth point to a greater authority. This is what made Jesus' miracles so wondrous. If Jesus can calm the wind and waves, heal the sick, bring sight to the blind, cause the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the dead to be raised to life then that tells us something about who He is and where His authority comes from. If they were looking, they would have known it was the Messiah.

Peter even says that the crowd knows about the works because Jesus did them in their midst "as you yourselves know." This is important because they weren't ignorant. The issue wasn't evidence. The issue was lack of belief. Some people think that God needs to show Himself, or perhaps if we just had proof but Peter says you had proof. The issue is the heart.

Sinclair Ferguson once observed that the Holy Spirit is the shy member of the Trinity because His ministry is to spotlight Christ. That is exactly what God was doing through Christ's earthly ministry. The signs never existed to glorify miracles themselves but to reveal the Son.

God attested Christ, but man rejects Christ. But even that rejection was not outside of God's plan, because

God Planned the Cross

Acts 2:23 ESV

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Peter gives us one of the most staggering sentences in all of Scripture. Look at that phrase: definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

Now some people hear "foreknowledge" and think it simply means God saw it coming. As though God watched history like a man watching a river from a bridge observing what flows past, anticipating what is around the bend, but not determining where the water goes. But that is not what Peter means. The word prognōsis, foreknowledge. in the New Testament is not merely God's ability to anticipate the future. It is another way of talking about His determination of events in advance, according to His own eternal purpose. God did not observe the crucifixion from a distance. He ordained it.

And Peter does not stop there. He says definite plan. The Greek word is boulē which is God's counsel, His sovereign purpose. This was not a contingency plan. Not a backup plan. Not God making the best of a situation that got out of hand. This was the plan and you cannot thwart the will of Almighty God. And yet, please don’t miss this, Peter turns immediately and says: you crucified and killed Him.

He does not explain how both of those things are true at the same time. He does not apologize for the tension. He does not soften God's sovereignty to protect human responsibility, and he does not erase human guilt to protect God's sovereignty. He preaches both, hard, in the same breath.

This is one of the clearest paradoxes in all of Scripture. Thomas Schreiner puts it plainly, “Peter brings the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of humans together, not even attempting to explain how both can occur, but simply assuming the reality. The most wicked act in human history was performed by people's own choice and it was the plan of God without making God liable or eradicating the people's guilt.”

Think about what that means. Jesus said to Judas at the Last Supper

Luke 22:22 ESV

22 For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!”

Determined and yet woe. Sovereignty and responsibility together, in one sentence, from the lips of Jesus Himself. Thomas Watson said, “God bends the sinful actions of men to bring about His holy purposes."

Think about the story of Joseph and his brothers. Joseph is what theologians call a Type, a figure in the Old Testament that points forward to Christ. Joseph suffered unjustly, was betrayed for silver, was wrongfully accused. And yet at the end of the story he says:

Genesis 50:20 ESV

20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Two intentions. One event. At the cross, the same thing only the stakes are not a family preserved from famine but a people redeemed from sin, death, and hell. The wicked actions of men and the saving purpose of God, intersecting at one hill outside Jerusalem, producing something that is simultaneously the greatest crime in history and the greatest act of love the universe has ever seen.

Now this matters for how you think about your own life. Many people ask if God is good and all-powerful, why does He allow suffering? Why the betrayal, the hurt, the confusion, the lies? What Acts 2 shows us is that God's sovereignty is not threatened by human evil. It was not even threatened at Calvary, where the greatest evil ever committed became the hinge of redemption. If God ruled at the cross, He rules now.

This is what sovereignty means. Not that we are robots without wills. Not that our choices don't matter. But that God rules so completely over history that even human rebellion, even the murder of His own Son, cannot overthrow His purposes. It is, as the Westminster Confession says, “mysteriously governed toward His glory and His redemptive ends.”

Notice Peter does not excuse their sin either. He says “you crucified Him. You killed Him.” We are all morally responsible for our sins. The things we do, the things we fail to do, and the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But look at the glory of God! Judas still betrayed. Pilate still compromised. The Pharisees still hated. Sinners still crucified. And God still accomplished exactly what He purposed from before the foundation of the world. If the cross were the end of it for Jesus, He would have been just another martyr. But Peter's whole sermon turns on the first word of the next sentence: GOD.

God Raised Jesus

Peter spends most of his time discussing the truth of Christ's resurrection. Everyone would have heard about the events. If Jesus were really dead, then the authorities could have produced a body no problem.

They killed Jesus! God raised Him up. Why? Because death had no claim on Him. It wasn't just that God is stronger, although He certainly is. But Peter says "it was not possible for Him to be held by it." What? Impossible? Why? Since Jesus is innocent of any sin, death had no right over Him. It couldn't make any claims. He is also Messiah, which the Bible promises the resurrection for. Peter points to Psalm 16 as proof.

He quotes King David because the Jews looking for a king and deliverer would look for a Davidic figure. Peter asks: since David did truly die, what did David mean when he said:

Acts 2:27 ESV

27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.

Isn't David's tomb right there? He died and his bones are there right now. So what did David mean? This is a prophecy and it finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus.

John Calvin said that David could only speak this way because he looked beyond himself by the spirit of prophecy to the promised Author of life. David died. He decayed. But Christ was wholly and perfectly exempted from the decay of the grave, that He might call His people into His fellowship and make them a part of resurrection life with Him.

Every single religious leader dies. Their graves are occupied right now. Muhammad is still there. Buddha was cremated and scattered across eight tribes. Jesus? He's alive. His tomb is empty. It’s as Charles Spurgeon said, “The resurrection is God's 'Amen' to Christ's 'It is finished.'"

But it's not just the lack of a body that is evidence of the resurrection, it is the people declaring the works of God in all sorts of languages. These are witnesses of the resurrected Christ! They saw Him ascend to glory! So Peter is not preaching about a myth or a rumor. It's not conjecture. Peter notes a double witness. Witnesses from the past: Scripture. Witnesses in the present: eyewitnesses. David foretold it. The apostles saw it.

Acts 2:32 ESV

32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

This is so critical for Christians today because Christianity is not merely having a good moral framework to live your life. It's not about getting daily inspiration and living well. Christianity is firstly and primarily about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul said 1 Corinthians 15:14

1 Corinthians 15:14 ESV

14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Everything in Christianity rises or falls on the resurrection of Christ. But the resurrection is not the final proof that Peter pushes for. He also preaches the last truth: Christ is enthroned.

God Exalted Jesus

The Gospel is not just about Jesus' life, death, and resurrection but finally about the truth that Jesus reigns!

Acts 2:33 ESV

33 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.

Now here Peter does something brilliant. Do you remember the question that started all of this? "What does this mean?" Peter has been building his answer brick by brick. God attested Jesus. God planned the cross. God raised Jesus from the dead. And now Peter lands the capstone, “What you all are seeing, what you are hearing, this very moment… this means Jesus reigns!”

The Spirit was not poured out to draw attention to Himself. The Spirit was poured out because the Messiah has been enthroned. Pentecost is the coronation announcement. What the crowd at Pentecost could see and hear were signs of Jesus' exaltation to a position of absolute glory, power, and authority in the universe. They came asking about tongues of fire. Peter tells them that they are standing in the middle of proof that Jesus sits on the throne of heaven.

And look, Peter is not letting them off easy! He is preaching this to Jerusalem. The city that handed Jesus over. The crowd that cried "Crucify Him." The religious establishment that called His miracles demonic. Peter is making a coronation announcement to the very people who demanded for the execution. The cross was not Christ's defeat. The ascension was His coronation. Earth rejected Him. Heaven crowned Him.

This is why resurrection and ascension belong together in Christian theology. You cannot stop at the empty tomb. The resurrection without the ascension leaves you with a risen Christ who is still somehow local, somehow limited. But the ascension declares that the risen Christ has taken His seat at the right hand of the Father with all authority in heaven and on earth.

Now Peter turns to Psalm 110:1

Psalm 110:1 ESV

1 The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

Who is David's Lord? It cannot be David himself. David never ascended. David never sat at God's right hand. So this is about the Messiah and Jesus fulfills it. The Scottish Presbyterian pastor Samuel Rutherford said, “Christ hath not lost one inch of His dominion."

Not one inch. Not to Caesar. Not to the Sanhedrin. Not to the grave. And not today. Not to any power, any government, any cultural tide that seems to be running against the Kingdom. God is making Christ's enemies His footstool. Even now, God is at work in ways we cannot count, all throughout the world, working toward the moment when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

The Kingdom of God is a paradox like so much else. It is a spiritual kingdom but it is also a physical one. The kingdom manifests itself when a husband repents toward his wife — a spiritual work with physical consequences. It is shown when someone decides to start tithing and trusting the Lord. It grows when a child prays for their friend. Spiritual work, real world impact. And it will culminate when the One whom earth rejected stands as the acknowledged Lord of all creation.

Acts 2:36 ESV

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.”

This is the verdict. Not a suggestion. Not an invitation to consider. A verdict which God has rendered regarding His judgment on Jesus of Nazareth, the one they accused of blasphemy, the one Caiaphas condemned, the one Pilate handed over, the one they nailed to a cross outside the city. God's verdict:

Jesus: Lord and Christ

Notice what Peter is not saying. He is not merely saying: "You killed an innocent man." That would be serious enough. But Peter's burden is far weightier than that. He is saying: "You stood against God's own verdict about His Son. You set yourself against thevery testimony of God."

And Church, this is not merely ancient history. The same question stands before every person who hears the Gospel. Not, “Were you there?” or “Did your hands drive the nails?” But, “Do you agree with God about Jesus?”

God attested Him: do you receive that testimony? Do you agree with God?

God planned redemption through Him: do you trust that work? Do you trust in what Christ did for you on that cross?

God raised Jesus Christ from the dead: do you believe it? Do you really?

God exalted Him as Lord and Christ: do you submit to that verdict? Is He your Lord and Christ?

Because here is what Peter understands that we must not miss. The words, "whom you crucified" at the end of verse 36 are not just an accusation. They are a setup. Peter ends on "whom you crucified" because he wants the weight of that verdict to land and then he wants to offer them a way through it.

The same Jesus you rejected is the same Jesus who can save you and is willing to. God has spoken. Heaven has rendered its verdict. The only question left is whether you will agree with God or whether you will go on living as though your verdict about Jesus is the one that matters.

He is Lord and Christ. Will you bow? Do you know what happens next? The people are cut to the heart because when God’s verdict lands on a soul, they have to do something with it.

Head: God wants you to know that Jesus of Nazareth has been vindicated, enthroned, and declared Lord and Christ by God the Father Himself.

That verdict is final.

Heart: God wants you to believe that the cross is the center of a plan that death itself could not overcome.

Jesus is the risen, reigning Christ is worthy of your complete trust and allegiance.

Hand: God wants you to examine yourself to see if you have submitted to His lordship.

It’s not about believing facts about Jesus, it’s about submitting to Him as Master and God. If you’ve never done that, then do it today right where you’re at!