Centering in on Jesus
Acts 2:22-36
In America, the church as a whole is going through an identity crisis. Who are we? What purpose do we serve? Why are so many churches declining? What can we do to turn things around? These are good questions to ask. These same problems faced the famous British pastor Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He addressed these problems in a long sermon series on the Book of Acts. He was trained as a medical doctor, so he had a brilliant analytical mind. One of the first steps in analyzing why the church of his day was declining was simply to observe what the church as a whole was doing to address these questions in his day. Many of the theologians and ministers of the church thought that the way to stay relevant in a rapidly changing culture was to adapt to it. This led to reducing emphasis on the preaching about Jesus. Instead, what Jesus taught was adapted to meet the perceived needs of the day. Jesus was divorced from the doctrine of the church. The church needed to cut Sunday night services, shorte or eliminate preaching. The church needed to address the social ideas of its day. The result was that the church became entirely irrelevant. A church that follows the dictates of men rather than God has no purpose at all. This is why the church in Great Britain became deader than ever. Only the churches which remained true to the Scripture and the teaching of the Apostles have some life in them today.
Lloyd-Jones’ approach was to go back to the Book of Acts to see what a true church was like. Why was there so much joy and unity? Why did the church possess such spiritual power? Why were the Apostles who deserted Jesus in craven fear on the night Jesus was betrayed now boldly preaching Jesus in the Temple, even though such preaching put their lives in danger? Lloyd-Jones saw a great gulf between the church of His day and the one in Acts. It is hard to believe the one came from the other. Lloyd-Jones was a student of the great revivals, including the great Welsh revival which occurred at the time of his birth. He wrote a book on revival which is well worth reading. Revival, which comes from God according to His will, involves a going back to the basics. It involves a stripping of the manmade theological structures which humans have imposed upon the church and getting back to God’s vision of the church. The world does not need state churches. Nor does it need “Christendom” which is a veneer placed upon society without any substance underneath.
Now let us take a look at this passage in Acts 2:22-36. We have already looked at the first part of Peter’s address to the people assembled at the Feast of Pentecost. The people had seen the Spirit fall upon the 120 in the Upper Room. They did not know what to make of the experience. Some thought they were drunk on grape juice. Peter addresses the mockers directly and gives them the proper interpretation of what they had seen. It had come from God who had prophesied of the day hundreds of years before in the Book of Joel. This was a proper thing to confront. We should never let the world define the church because they will always get it wrong. The world mocks the church. It is distressing to see how eagerly the church has been to accept such labels. We think of “Methodists,” “Holy-Rollers,” “Lutherans (followers of the ‘heretic’ Luther rather than the “true church” of Rome,” and other such terms of derision. We try to baptize these words of contempt into badges of honor. But the church has the task of clearly telling the world who we are.
Having dealt with properly defining the phenomena, Peter shifts to the message to which Pentecost was a sign and proof. Peter does not go and say something like “This experience is wonderful, and we want you to have it too.” He centers in on the person of Jesus. The Book of Acts begins with the words that the first work, Luke, was the beginning of what Jesus did and taught. This implies that the church is to continue in what Jesus had started. We are to tell the world what Jesus did and taught. In addition, we tell the world why Jesus did what He did and taught what He taught. This goes from His birth, His life, His teaching, His miracles, His rejection, His crucifixion for our sin, His resurrection, His ascension, and his return. And Peter’s sermon on Pentecost addresses all of these events and explains God’s purpose for their happening.
After a polite address of the listeners as fellow men and Israelites, Peter gets to the crux of the matter. He presents Jesus of Nazareth to them. He tells them that He was a man approved by God. The proof of this was the signs, wonders and miracles that He performed in the public sight. The Apostles were not the only witnesses to these events either. The phenomena of Pentecost also approved Jesus as well as the Apostles whom Jesus had commissioned to be His witnesses. These events are grounded in the Scripture which we today call the “Old Testament.”
Peter then goes on to tell the hearers that they had taken the One that God had so publicly approved of and killed Him. It must be noted that a good many in the crowd may not have been in Jerusalem on the day of His crucifixion. Were their wicked hands also laid upon Jesus? Or some might say that the leaders in collusion with the Romans had put them do death. Even those who shouted “Crucify Him” should not be held to be guilty as they were deceived by the Jewish leaders. Everyone wants to put the responsibility of such an awful deed upon someone else. But if we realize that Jesus died for our sin as well as theirs, then we must realize that our wicked hands were at work on that day. If one looks at the Lutheran passion chorale “Ah, Holy Jesus” we hear the chilling confession: “it was I who denied thee. I crucified thee.” But the words Jesus spoke from the cross: “Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” applies to us as well.
Peter then goes on the Resurrection. The One whom they had fastened to a tree rose from the dead. God did this. God undid what they had done. He vetoed their purpose. Their purpose for killing Jesus was not God’s. The definition of the people of the event must not be allowed to stand. Jesus was not the “misguided martyr” as presented by Judas in Jesus Christ, Superstar. He was not the victim of religious intolerance. He was not some mentally ill person, an apocalyptic madman who brought His own death upon Him. Rather this was God’s plan from the very beginning. This is what the church must declare. There is no room for accommodation and compromise.
Peter then goes on to quote King David in the 16th Psalm to prove that the resurrection was prophesied a thousand years beforehand. This was not God’s reaction to what people had done to Jesus and righting the wrong done to Jesus by raising Him. The amazing fact is that He raised Jesus so our wrongs might be righted. We must understand that Jesus considered the Old Testament to be the inviolable Word of God. It was not the work of people who had more or less enlightened views of God. God spoke through the prophets. He had opened the eyes of the Apostles to the proper interpretation of the Old Testament. The Scripture testifies of Jesus, including His death and resurrection.
Peter says that David spoke as one of these prophets. He reminded the hearers that He could not have been speaking about himself as he was dead and buried. His tomb was known to the people of his day.they could go there for themselves. He also could not have been talking about his son Solomon. He, too, was long dead and buried. But whether David was fully aware of this or not, he as a prophet was actually speaking about his distant descendant, Jesus. Corruption of the body was thought to start after three days. But Jesus was raised on the third day. His body did not see corruption. This is quoted as a proof of Jesus’ person. But David saw Jesus always before him.
God’s purpose for Jesus could not fail. What happened was necessary. Jesus not only arose from the dead, but in fulfillment of Psalm 110, the most quoted Scripture in the New Testament, He ascended to the right hand of the Father. This is to say that Jesus was raised to the highest position in the Kingdom of God. The Psalm also says that He was to be exalted until all his enemies were made His footstool. This is a little hard for us to understand today, but in the Ancient world, when an enemy was subdued, he was laid on his back before the king. The king would place his foot on the neck of this person. He was totally sovereign over the life and death of this man. If he willed, he could crush his neck. Or he could show mercy on the man. The decision was his, and his alone.
This tells us that Jesus has our eternal life and death within His power. There is no other court of appeal. If He steps upon the neck, He is just and right to do so. If He shows mercy, then He is merciful. Unless we see this Jesus, rather than the helpless baby Jesus in the manger or the syrupy God of love who would never condemn His creatures to hell, we are in the greatest of danger. If everyone is to be saved, then what purpose is the church? What message do we bring? But if the message is the one Peter brings at Pentecost, we see this as our bounden duty to warn others. The church does not need to preach social issues or politics. The church does not preach in a way as to find acceptance in the world. The church is to offer Christ. And this is not a generic Christ, but Jesus Christ. The church needs to proclaim Jesus as both LORD and Savior.
This is what the hearers of the sermon thought. After Peter reminds them once more that they had murdered their Messiah, they were undone. There was no need of an altar call. They knew they were in extreme danger and could only implore God for mercy. The good news is that He is willing. This is why He came in the first place. The gift of the Holy Spirit was proof of this.
So having looked as this first sermon of the church, we need to ask ourselves: “Is this the Jesus we are preaching?” If not, could this be the reason there is no life or joy in the church? To put it another way, if we were to go back to Apostolic preaching and practice, would we see revival in our churches? I place these questions before you for your consideration. Even God says through Haggai the Prophet: “Consider your ways.”
