As Peter continued his Pentecost sermon, he cited the prophecy of David in Psalm 16:8-11. What surely surprised this Jewish audience was Peter’s identification of David’s prophecy to be as spoken by this promised Descendant of David. Thus, the words of David in this psalm are as if spoken by Jesus the promised Messiah and the fulfillment of God’s oath to David that one of his descendants would sit upon his throne forever. The God-man speaks of a relationship where God is always near to Him, filling Him with strength and continued purpose as He headed to the cross. Such was His confidence that He was certain that He would be raised immortal, glorious, spiritual, and incorruptible after His death … speaking of His own resurrection.
Peter’s point to this Jewish audience was that it was impossible for David to speak of himself in this psalm for the simple reason that he died, was buried, and that his tomb (with his remains!) was still in Jerusalem at the time of Peter’s sermon. David was not raised in this prophesied way, for he was still dead. But Jesus WAS raised from the dead by the power of God and proved that He WAS this promised descendant of David’s, but also that He was the long-awaited Messiah who was one with God! David had prophetically seen and spoken about such an event: the resurrection of Christ and the remaining perfection of His flesh while it lay in the grave.
Peter emphatically declared that it was THIS Jesus whom God had raised from the dead, and that the Spirit-filled apostles were all eyewitnesses to such a fact. Furthermore, THIS risen Jesus had ascended to heaven and had been exalted at the right hand of God. There, as the exalted King, He now bore the authority to send the promised Spirit. Because He lives, He can give the life-giving Spirit! And it is King Jesus who has poured out the Spirit upon the believers that are proclaiming the risen Christ to this Jewish crowd. They can see and hear the evidence.
Peter then drew his sermon to a close by returning to the theme of final judgment. To reinforce this, he again quoted David, this time from Psalm 110. In that passage, God speaks to the exalted Son, telling Him to sit on His exalted throne during the time that all enemies of God are divinely brought under subjection to the authority of Christ (“until I make your enemies your footstool”). Peter closed by declaring to all the house of Israel that God had made Jesus of Nazareth both Lord and Christ: both the promised Messiah and the sovereign over the universe. And it is this King, who will return in judgment against His enemies, that these Jews had crucified.
The Spirit brought stabbing conviction to the hearts of Peter’s audience, and they cried out in horror and trembling asking Peter and the other apostles what they could do. They had been brought low to see their evil sin, and they pleaded with Peter for some type of good news. Peter gave them a simple and profound answer: the best of Good News! He commanded them to repent: to turn away from their evil, sinful thoughts and ways to God, to turn from their rejection of Messiah and to call upon His name, believing in Jesus as the promised Messiah and exalted Lord. As a means of submitting to Christ and publicly affirming their commitment to Him, Peter further commanded them to be baptized in Jesus’ name. Their repentance would lead to God’s declaration that their sins had been forgiven, and the realization of such a divine remitting of their sins would lead/cause them to immediately enter the waters of baptism: converts consciously receiving baptism!
The Spirit had already brought them low to point of despair, but Peter assured his fearful hearers that true repenters would receive the gift of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, who would be given to them to minister the saving benefits of Christ’s redemption. Even better, the promise of the poured-out Spirit applied to them (the generation responsible for murdering Jesus), and to their offspring (the subsequent generations), and even to those generations in distant places: a recapitulation of God pouring out His Spirit upon all flesh! And those of this generation, succeeding generations, and far off generations who would indeed repent would be those that had been called inwardly by God to repentance and faith. Peter’s speaking concluded with him repeatedly urging his audience to be saved from remaining as part of the morally evil generation that will face Jesus the Judge. The overwhelming response to Peter’s exhortation will be examined in our next study.
You can listen to this teaching on Acts 2:25-40 by clicking on the following link: Peter’s Sermon on Pentecost (Part 2)
