A. M. Fairbairn said, “The task of reason is to make impossible all religion save the best.” This
was the attitude of Peter and Paul the great evangelists of the early church. They were determined to
use all the reason and logic at their disposal to persuade men to see that Jesus Christ was the only
hope. We do not find them using force or any subtle tricks to win people. They use the Scripture
and contemporary historical facts to cause men to see the truth. Just to give you a picture of how
consistently Paul persuaded men, let me read several passages.
In Acts 13:43 we read, “Now when the congregation was broken up many of the Jews and
religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God.” In Acts 18:4 we read, “And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and
persuaded the Jews and Greeks.” In Acts 19:8, “And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly
for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.”
In the last reference we see that Paul sought to persuade men to his dying day. In Acts 28:23 we
read, “...there came many to him unto his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom
of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets,
from morning til evening.”
Try and visualize what this means. Paul was constantly going over the Old Testament and
showing how it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Hours and hours he spent with the Jews who knew the
Old Testament. It was for 3 months in one place. Imagine how they covered every conceivable
Messianic passage. The Jews would seek to show how they were not yet fulfilled, and Paul would
show them how Jesus did fulfill them, just as Peter is doing at Pentecost. Now to make the picture
perfect let me read to you the words of Jesus as He rebuked the two on the road to Emmaus. In
Luke 24:25-27 we read, “..O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses
and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
Nothing is more clearly taught in the New Testament than the fact that Jesus was the focus
point of all the Old Testament prophecies, and that the New Testament church used fulfilled
prophecy as the greatest method of persuading Jews to receive Jesus as their Messiah. The tragedy
is that this method of evangelism was laid aside in favor of force, and the result was that the church
became the biggest wall between Jews and Jesus. The church began to force Jews to be baptized.
The Inquisition in Spain had a demonic scheme whereby they could eliminate Jews. They were
forced to be baptized and become Christians, and then they were tried for being heretical Christians,
and the penalty was death. Then all the property of heretics went to the church.
Jacob Jocz in The Jewish People And Jesus Christ records the whole shocking history of this
abuse of power right up to modern times. He writes, “The compulsory hearing of sermons by Jews
in Christian churches was already practiced in the 13th century. Two centuries later it became a
general custom, especially in Italy. Abrahams records the comic situation that the ears of the Jews
use to be examined on entering the churches for they were suspected of stopping them with cotton.
Overseers were appointed to ensure that the Jews remained awake during the 2 hour sermon
delivered to them...the Bull of Benedict XIII of 1415 decreed that 3 public sermons were to be
preached to the Jews annually and that all above 12 years of age should be compelled to attend to
hear these sermons.”
It was not until the 18th century that the church got back to the New Testament method of
persuasion, and Jews again began to receive Jesus as their Messiah. History demonstrates that Peter
was led of the Holy Spirit in his sermon at Pentecost, for the only way devout Jews could be won
would be by a persuasive demonstration that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the messianic prophecies. Peter had made it clear that as Jews they were guilty for the death of Jesus, whom they admitted
who was a worker of miracles and a man of God. Now in verse 24 he states that God raised him up.
God did not accept the judgment of the Jews. Their court gave Him up to death, but the supreme
court, which was God himself, raised Him up to life. He was loosed from death, for it was
impossible for Jesus to remain bound by its cords. It had no power over Him in the first place, but
He submitted to it for our sakes. He knew it could not hold Him, and to say that of Jesus is to say
that He was God. George Matheson says, “There is no miracle in the resurrection of Christ. There
would have been a miracle if He had not risen.” It was just not possible for Him to remain in the
grip of death, and so the resurrection was natural from God’s point of view. His body was
transformed, however, and this made it a miracle.
In verse 25 to 28 Peter supports his statement that it was not possible for Jesus to be held by
death by appealing to the words of David in Psa. 16:8-11. Peter says that it applies to Jesus, for He
was confident in going to the cross, and He died voluntarily because He was assured of God’s
presence and promise that He would not forsake His body or soul but would be preserved through
death. In verse 29 He says men and brethern let me speak frankly. That is, do not be offended by
what I say, for I reverence David also, but let’s face the facts. David is dead and buried, and his
tomb is with us yet today. David could not have been speaking of himself, for just the opposite
happened to him. His body did see corruption, and so David spoke of another, or else his hope was
false.
In verse 30 we see David was writing about one whom he knew would come because God had
promised that a Messiah would set on his throne. This promise can be read in II Sam. 7:11-16,
where it is clear that Solomon was the literal fulfillment, but where the emphasis on the kingdom
being forever implies a future fulfillment. The emphasis on the sworn oath of God in this promise is
found in Psa. 89:3-4 where read, “...I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to
David my servant: I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all
generations.” Then in verse 36 we read, “His line shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun
before me.”
In verse 31 Peter says that David saw ahead and knew this promise was to be fulfilled by Christ
in the resurrection. David was a Christian before Christ, for he believed in the resurrection and
confessed Christ as Lord. He foresaw that Messiah must die and conquer death, for he was to be an
immortal king who would take the throne of David and never again depart. The Jews did not see
this in Old Testament prophecy. They apparently never thought deeply enough about how Messiah
could live forever without first conquering death, and the sin that causes death. David knew
Messiah must be raised from death, and Peter goes on in verse 32 to say that this Jesus of whom we
have been speaking was raised by God just as David said would happen to Messiah, and we are
witnesses to this fact. There was no reason to doubt these 120 respectable Jewish citizens.
In verse 33 he goes on to say that Jesus is by the right hand of God and having received the
promise of the Holy Spirit, He is the author of what you now see and hear. In verse 34 he says that it
is not David on the throne in heaven fulfilling his own words, for he said, “The Lord said unto my
Lord set thou on my right hand.” It was Jehovah saying this to Christ. David calls Jesus his Lord.
Jesus used this passage to confuse the Pharisees in Matt. 22:41-46. He asked them how Messiah
could be the son of David when David calls Him Lord? It was a contradiction they could not
answer. How could the Christ be the son of David and also the Lord of David? The only way would be by being both God and man. He would have to be born of a woman and yet be deity. This
is precisely how Jesus fulfilled both concepts, and how He ascended to the throne of David as the
seed of David in the flesh. He was both the son of David and the Son of God.
In verse 36 Peter concludes that all the house of Israel should know for sure that God has made
that same Jesus whom you crucified to be both Lord and Christ. He is on David’s throne and will be
so forever. But what about the postponed kingdom that prophecy experts are always talking about?
Didn’t the Jews reject Jesus and cause Him to postpone taking the throne? I don’t read anything
about such a postponement. All that is clear is that Christ took the throne and nothing was
postponed. All the prophecies of Moses and the prophets were fulfilled in Him. The New
Testament is consistent and insistent on the fact that Jesus now reigns as Lord supreme with all
power in heaven and on earth.
When Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus to the virgin Mary he said in Luke 1:32-33, “He
shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give Him the
throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom
there shall be no end.” When was this fulfilled? Peter and all the New Testament writers say it was
fulfilled at the ascension of Christ to the right hand of the Father. No prophecies could be more
completely fulfilled than those concerning Jesus ascending to the throne of David.
