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You can turn in your Bibles to 
Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, it's a long chapter. We will read it all though. As 
you're turning there and finding your place, just a brief outline 
to the chapter. We have, of course, the narrative 
record of the early church. primarily the ministry of the 
Apostle Peter as he proclaims Christ Jesus the Lord in Jerusalem. And in this chapter, we have 
the day of Pentecost arriving. And in verses one to four, we 
read of the giving of the spirit Christ had promised, the giving 
of his spirit both prior to his resurrection and post-resurrection, 
pre-ascension. He promised the giving of his 
Holy Spirit. So we see that in verses one 
to four. In verses 5 to 13, we see the 
crowd's response to the giving of the Holy Spirit. We see a 
portion of the crowd recognizing or being amazed and perplexed 
that people were speaking in their native tongues and then 
others mocking, saying they are full of new wine. Well, that 
follows up then in verses 14 to 21 with Peter's explanation, 
his correction, no doubt, of the mockers and his explanation 
of what this was, this giving of the spirit. And then we see 
Peter's gospel sermon in verse 22 to verse 39, and then the 
growth of the church, sort of a summary report in verse 40 
to verse 47. We're going to focus primarily 
this morning on verses 22 to 36. that sermon by Peter. But let's read the entire chapter, 
set the stage as we seek to look at the sermon by Peter. Acts 
2, beginning in verse 1. When the day of Pentecost had 
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And 
suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty 
wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 
Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat 
upon each of them. And they were all filled with 
the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the 
Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem 
Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound 
occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because 
everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were 
all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, Look, are not 
all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each 
in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes 
and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, 
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts 
of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 
Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues the 
wonderful works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed, 
saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others, mocking, 
said, they are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the 
eleven, raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea and 
all who dwell in Jerusalem, Let this be known to you and heed 
my words, for these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only 
the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by 
the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in 
the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on 
all flesh. Your sons and your daughters 
shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men 
shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on 
my maidservants I will pour out my spirit in those days, and 
they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven 
above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor 
of smoke. The sun shall be turned into 
darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great 
and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that 
whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men 
of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested 
by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through 
him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him, being delivered 
by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have 
taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death. 
Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it 
was not possible that he should be held by it. For David says 
concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face. For he is at my right hand that 
I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced and 
my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will 
rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul 
in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. 
You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me 
full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak 
freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and 
buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being 
a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him 
that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would 
raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this, 
spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul 
was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This 
Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, 
being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from 
the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this, 
which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into 
the heavens, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit 
at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. 
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that 
God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and 
Christ. Now, when they heard this, they 
were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the 
apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said 
to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the 
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall 
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to 
you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many 
as the Lord our God will call. And with many other words he 
testified and exhorted them saying, be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received 
his word were baptized and that day about 3,000 souls were added 
to them. And they continued steadfastly 
in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of 
bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul 
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now 
all who believed were together and had all things in common 
and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among 
all as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one 
accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they 
ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising 
God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added 
to the church daily those who were being saved. Amen. Let us 
pray. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in 
this, the reading of the scriptures. We rejoice that we can engage 
in this act of worship, the preaching of your word. And we do pray 
again that you would be glorified in this act, that the Lord Jesus 
Christ would be exalted. Upon the praises of his people 
here, we pray that you would help minister, that you would 
help hearer, and we pray, Lord God, that this exercise of preaching 
would be unto the praise of your glorious grace, that saints would 
be instructed and encouraged, and that sinners would be saved, 
Lord God, that more and more might, by preaching, not only 
in this place, but around the world, might rejoice in the name 
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and find all spiritual 
blessings in Him. And it is in Christ's name that 
we pray. Amen. Well, last week, Pastor Butler 
preached from Matthew 16-18, so I thought it might be a good 
companion to preach a sermon this morning and a sermon this 
evening from Acts chapter 2, because what we find after in 
subsequent revelation, revelation that follows Matthew 16, 18, 
we have much of that is rather the opening up, if you will, 
of the promise of Matthew 16, 18. So to rephrase that, the 
revelation that follows Matthew 16, 18 is very much the explication, 
the opening up of the promise that Christ will build his church 
and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. and we 
come to Acts chapter 2, and we see that the building of the 
church comes by way of the proclamation of Jesus Christ. The preaching 
of the word is that means whereby, one of the means, whereby Christ 
grows and builds His church. What we have, following the promise 
in Matthew 16, 18, And before Acts chapter 2, we see Christ 
preparing His disciples prior to His crucifixion and His resurrection. 
He's equipping His disciples by instruction, by the opening 
up of the truth of the Father, by reminding them on a number 
of occasions that He must be delivered up by wicked hands 
in Jerusalem, be raised the third day, and ascend to His Father 
where He will send the Spirit. We see him promising that sending 
of the Spirit. We see him effectively executing 
the work that the Father has given him, culminating in the 
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see him rising again the third 
day, and we see, following that resurrection, he proves himself, 
or he reveals himself by many infallible proofs, and then he 
instructs his disciples. He gives them a Bible study before 
his ascension. And he ascends to the right hand 
of the majesty on high, and he sends that promised spirit, that 
promised comforter who will bring the message of himself. And so 
we arrive at Acts chapter 2, and that's what we see. We see 
the giving of the spirit, the sending of the spirit by Christ, 
and the subsequent proclamation of Jesus Christ in this multitude 
of tongues to those who were gathered in Jerusalem. So the 
text that we're looking at this morning is 22 to 39, actually, 
this morning and this evening. And we'll look at the text under 
four points, the central message, the scriptural anticipation, 
the historical fulfillment, and the weighty implications. The 
first two we'll look at this morning, and those two again 
are the central message and the scriptural anticipation. To get 
us started, this is FF Bruce on Acts chapter 2, specifically 
the section that we're reading now. The early apostolic kerygma. Now whenever you hear, if you 
ever hear the word kerygma, that simply means the apostolic pattern 
of proclamation. So the early apostolic kerygma 
regularly falls into four parts, which may be summarized thus. 
First, the announcement that the age of fulfillment has arrived. Second, a rehearsal of the ministry, 
death, and triumph of Jesus. Third, citation of Old Testament 
scriptures whose fulfillment in these events proved Jesus 
to be the Messiah. and fourthly, a call to repentance. 
These four elements are present in Peter's proclamation here. 
He has already announced that the age of fulfillment has come 
and he now rehearses the story of Jesus. You see, in his explanation 
of these tongues that were being spoken, this utterance that the 
Spirit had given, Peter goes to the prophet Joel and he says, 
this event, what is occurring right now before your eyes is 
the fulfillment of the prophet Joel's prophecy that it shall 
come to pass in the last days says God that I will pour out 
my spirit on all flesh and he closes it with this statement 
verse 21 and it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the 
name of the Lord shall be saved And it's with that final quotation 
of that portion of Joel's prophecy that Peter now transitions into 
the story of Jesus Christ, the central message. And so we want 
to notice first under the central message, notice the bringer of 
the message. You see, it's always a wholesome 
exercise. and maybe we could put it this 
way, our Bible reading and our preaching can very often be enriched 
by biographical recollection. What does that mean? Well, looking 
briefly, or at length, at the one who is in view, in this case, 
the Apostle Peter. You see, what a contrast we have 
here in the Apostle Peter. It was only, or it was less than 
two months ago, that this Peter was denying the Savior. It was 
less than two months ago that this Peter was pronouncing or 
was swearing by an oath that he did not know this Jesus of 
Nazareth. And now we have, though, on this 
day of Pentecost, Peter boldly standing before the countrymen 
that he previously denied the Savior before. Now he stands 
before them and he proclaims boldly, the things of his valiant 
king. Less than two months ago, Peter 
was rebuking. Remember in Pastor Butler's reading 
of Matthew 16, 18, and that chapter as a whole, it was less than 
two months ago from this vantage point that Peter was rebuking 
without merit, but rebuking the Savior, saying, far be it from 
you, Lord, that you should go to Jerusalem to be delivered 
up, to be crucified and rise again. But now the death and 
the resurrection of Christ, those very things that he was in his 
ignorance trying to prevent, those are the things that he 
now holds as the sum and substance of the Christian message and 
that he proclaims to this gathered audience. And it was less than 
two months ago that this same Peter was brandishing steel and 
lopping off ears in his zeal for Jesus Christ. But now, he 
calmly says before those same sorts of men, men of Israel, 
hear these words. And he now brandishes not a physical 
sword of steel, but he brandishes the sword of the Spirit, which 
is the word of God. And he brings a cutting message, 
cutting to the heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. So the bringer of the message 
is that Peter, and this is a very interesting point. If you were 
here, or if you listened online, or if you listened, and you weren't 
here, but Pastor Butler's message spent a lot of time, or he spent 
a lot of time on rejecting, of course, the Roman Catholic interpretation 
of the passage and upholding the Protestant understanding 
of Matthew 16, 18. Just very briefly, remember, 
it is the Roman Catholic assertion that those words, I say that 
you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, that 
those words are the institution of the papacy, if you will, and 
that it is upon an ecclesiastical entity in Rome that the church 
will be built. Well, it is the Protestant understanding, 
of course, that Jesus is saying it is upon the right profession 
of me as the as the Christ is the son of the living God that 
the church will be built. Well, here we have the proof 
in the pudding. How is it that Peter, the one 
who said thou art the Christ, the son of the living God? How 
is it that Christ is building his church? Well, it's by the 
proclamation of Jesus as the Christ, as the son of the living 
God, because that's what Peter does here. in Acts chapter 2. 
He says, men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, 
and he continues to bring the gospel message. Notice, secondly, 
the intent of the message. The intent of the message. It 
is to convict the audience of their guilt that they might repent 
and believe in the one they put to death. Make no mistake here, 
in Acts chapter 2, 22 to 24, Peter is not using guilt manipulation, 
but rather is bringing to bear or driving the nail of guilt, 
hammering the nail of guilt into the consciences of these men 
of Israel. And we read that, don't we, as 
we continue this declaration. Men of Israel, hear these words. 
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, 
and signs. which God did through him in 
your midst, as you yourselves also know, him being delivered 
by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have 
taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death." 
You see, he is using wholesomely the weight of guilt in order 
to bring to bear the grossness of their transgression and to 
drive them to faith. in the saving king. But we see 
this in the intent of the message, or we see that it is to convict 
the audience of their guilt. We see here first that Peter 
appeals to their recent memory. He appeals to their recent memory, 
stressing that Jesus was proven to God to be the promised Messiah 
through miracles, wonders, and signs. Remember that the miracles, 
wonders, and signs of Christ were not just to dazzle. They 
were not means in and of themselves, or rather they were means, but 
they were not the end. The miracles, the wonders, and 
the signs were those things whereby Jesus was proven by God to be 
the promised Messiah. This is Bruce. That these acts 
were indeed performed by divine power had been generally acknowledged 
except by those who saw that such an acknowledgement would 
involve undesirable theological implications. You see, Peter 
wants to remind these people and to to point them to the landmarks 
and the monuments of their memories, that this Jesus Christ, whom 
you crucified, was proven to you by miracles, signs, and wonders. He did those things in your midst, 
yet you, in your depravity, you, because you foresaw and you understood 
these undesirable theological implications, bottom line, because 
of your depravity and wickedness and deadness and sin, you rejected 
this one that was being proven by God before your eyes, by these 
miracles, by these wonders, and by these signs. So he wants to 
remind them that they saw these mighty works. They saw this one 
proven by God before their very eyes. In Luke 11, there's a passage 
here, and we see that the gathered crowd there recognizes this. 
Notice in Luke, excuse me, Luke chapter 7, In Luke 7, we have 
this account of the widow whose son dies and Jesus Christ comes 
and he brings this one back to life. And in Luke 7, verse 11, 
this account begins this way. Now, it happened the day after 
that he went into a city called Nain, and many of his disciples 
went with him in a large crowd. And when he came near the gate 
of the city, behold, a dead man was being carried out, the only 
son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from 
the city was with her. When the Lord saw her, he had 
compassion on her, and said to her, Do not weep. Then he came 
and touched the open coffin, and those who carried him stood 
still. And he said, Young man, I say 
to you, Arise. So he who was dead sat up and 
began to speak, and he presented him to his mother. Then fear 
came upon all, and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet 
has risen up among us, and God has visited his people. You see 
what's going on here. And the words of verse 15 are 
absolutely amazing. So he who was dead sat up and 
began to speak. Isn't that amazing? You see, 
it wasn't the case at this time, that there was just, you know, 
it was just a daily occurrence that the dead were sitting up 
and speaking. While this was a time, peculiar and redemptive 
history, where there were miracles, wonders and signs, they were 
not happening every single day and in every household and in 
every mortuary or whatever the first century equivalent of a 
mortuary was. People weren't dying and, you 
know, sitting up and speaking sometime after their death, whether 
near or far removed from it. This just wasn't the case. It 
is an amazing thing. So he who was dead sat up and 
began to speak and you see the response. They glorified God 
saying a great prophet has risen up among us and God has visited 
his people. You see some Of course, and that's 
what Bruce was getting at, it was generally acknowledged except 
by those who saw the problem to their ungodly religion. So the miracles of Christ were 
performed, they were seen, they had the proof, if you will, before 
their eyes that this Messiah was vindicated by God through 
the performance of miracles, wonders, and signs, and the Apostle 
Peter reminds them of this. Secondly, and this is still under 
the convicting of the audience of their guilt, we see in verse 
23 that Peter drives home the nail of guilt in speaking of 
the death of Christ, and we've already noted that. But you see, 
that would bring it even closer to the cutting of the heart. 
In fact, this is where Peter would actually cut them to the 
heart in that sense with the sword of the spirit because he 
hammers the nail of guilt that they were the ungodly and the 
wicked men who put Christ to death upon that Roman implement 
of execution. Oh sure, the Romans did the brunt 
of the work, but you see it was at the prodding of this ungodly 
apostate generation that Jesus Christ was put upon that Roman 
implement of execution. Peter drives home the nail of 
guilt in speaking of the death of Christ. They took Christ with 
wicked intent to crucify and silence Him. Again, verse 23, 
Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of 
God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put 
to death. You see, it very often is the 
tool or a tool in the hand of the preacher if he knows the 
sin of the audience, to bring it to bear upon that audience. And no doubt, this audience was 
guilty of taking Christ by lawless hands, crucifying Him, and putting 
Him to death. And you see, this comes up repeatedly 
in the book of Acts. If you have your Bibles open, 
you can turn a bit to the right in the narrative record of the 
book of Acts, to Acts chapter 3. Because you see, this is a 
common theme in the book of Acts. And Peter repeats this after 
the healing of a lame man in Acts chapter 3. Notice in verse 
14 of Acts 3, But you denied the Holy One and the just, and 
asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince 
of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. You see, he adds another element 
to the hammering of the nail of guilt into the consciences 
of these ungodly men. He brings to their memory, he 
reminds them of the fact that they sought rather to have the 
thief and the murderer and the ungodly zealot released to them. 
and have the holy and the just one put in his place. Again the 
text, but you denied the holy and the just, the holy one and 
the just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed 
the prince of life whom God raised from the dead. You see for those, 
and we see this in the narrative record, we see two responses 
One, by the grace of God, and one, of course, by the continued 
passing over, if you will, of the Lord God Almighty. The leaving 
of men in their transgression and in their sin. We see two 
responses in the book of Acts. And in fact, similar language 
is used in the English that the message of the apostles cuts 
to the heart. In Acts chapter 2, we have this 
guilt being brought before the audience, brought down upon the 
heads of the audience. You put to death the prince of 
life. And we see that these men are cut to the heart. And they 
ask, men and brethren, what shall we do? But you see, in other 
instances, we have that message cutting to the heart. But rather 
than, by the grace of God, flee to the Savior and find the bliss 
of salvation, rather they gnash their teeth at the preacher. And they bring him outside of 
the city, and they heap large stones upon his head. You see 
this is a message that cuts to the heart and by God's grace 
or by God's justice it ends up in two responses. So we have 
again Peter driving home the nail of guilt and we need to 
recognize as well here that the cross death was the predetermined 
plan of God. Verse 23, him being delivered 
by the determined purpose and for knowledge of God. Of course 
as Christians we must, we have to recognize the fact the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ was the plan of God before the foundation 
of the world. Ephesians 311 according to the 
eternal purpose which he had in Christ Jesus before the world 
was. The Lord God Almighty had pure 
and perfect and holy and just intent in sending Jesus Christ 
to the cross. You see, just like we have, and 
we bring up these verses, and we always do for a reason. Genesis 
50-20 and Acts 2-23, and we might even throw in there, we should, 
Acts chapter 4, specifically the quoting of Psalm 2 and the 
interpretation of it by the gathered church. But where we're going 
is this, that we have in the example in Genesis 50-20, we 
have Joseph saying to his brothers who determined evil against him, 
he says, you meant it for evil or you intended it or purposed 
it for evil. And then it's followed by, but 
God meant or but God intended or but God purposed it for good. that He might save many alive. You see, the same thing is going 
on here in Acts 2.23. We have the divine intention, 
the salvation of a multitude that no man can number from every 
tribe and tongue and people and nation, but we have the wicked 
and ungodly intent of the Jews and the Romans. But you have 
taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. These are, as Bruce notes, these 
ungodly Jews who put to death the Prince of Life. They were 
unconsciously fulfilling the determinate counsel and foreknowledge 
of God. You see, they're not acting with 
the intent that Jesus Christ might save many alive, so we 
have to perpetrate this evil against him, but rather, they 
are doing this to silence the Prince of Life, to silence His 
so-called blasphemies, His claims of Messiahship, that He is the 
Son of God, to silence this One who brings messages of righteousness 
and shows them their sin. They with wicked hands put Him 
to death. And this nail of guilt is hammered 
again, often by apostolic preaching. Not only do we have it repeated 
in Acts 3.14, but we have it in Acts 5.30 as well. You see, 
it is a common and repeated tool in the hand of the apostolic 
proclamation to bear the guilt of the audience. In Acts 5.30, 
we read, The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered 
by hanging on a tree. You see, we have this changing 
language of the apostle which brings perhaps to bear nuances 
of the wickedness of their transgression. You by lawless hands crucified 
and put to death. We have verse 14 in Acts 3. You put to death the prince of 
life. We have this different language, though of course the 
same meaning. that you murdered by hanging on a tree. And then 
the godly deacon, Stephen, in Acts 7, uses the same words. And in Acts 7, verse 51, we read, 
you stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always 
resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. 
Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? and they 
killed those who foretold the coming of the just one of whom 
you now have become the betrayers and murderers who have received 
the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it. You see 
the faithful proclaimers of the gospel message, knowing the sin 
of this generation, bring it to bear upon their consciences. 
And it isn't just to leave it there. It isn't just to leave 
it there and let it dangle and see what happens. But rather, 
there is a twofold purpose in the delivery of that guilt and 
in the weight of the guilt that they're bringing upon the consciences 
of the people. First, it is unto this end, verse 
21 of Acts chapter 2, that whosoever or that whoever calls on the 
name of the Lord shall be saved. You see, that is why Peter is 
bringing to bear this message and punctuating it with the guilt, 
the nail of the guilt of these particular people. But you see, 
it's also so that the coming judgment upon them No doubt, 
the temporal judgment by the Roman armies, but even more than 
that, the eternal judgment of God himself upon those who reject 
the gospel, who reject Jesus Christ, and who act in opposition 
to the things of God, that the justice will be more seen. You 
see, you put to death the Lord of glory. You crucified the Prince 
of life. And so God is just to bring upon 
you recompense for your wicked actions. And thirdly, under this 
idea, or this truth, that the intent of the message is to convict 
the audience of their guilt, we see Peter continuing in verse 
24 by letting the audience know that a higher court was presiding 
over the events of the cross. We've already noted that it is, 
the cross was, by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of 
God. But notice verse 24, Peter is letting the audience know 
that a higher court was presiding over the events of the cross. 
Backing up to verse 23, Him being delivered by the determined purpose 
and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, 
have crucified and put to death whom God raised up, having loosed 
the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should 
be held by it. You see, in their actions, they 
were seeking to silence, to put to death, to bring an end to 
this insurrectionist, they might say, to bring an end to this 
one who was proclaiming only the good things of the Father, 
the one that they professed to believe in. They thought that 
they were bringing an end, they were silencing this insurrectionist. 
But you see, a higher court was presiding over the events of 
the cross because this one that they crucified by lawless hands 
and put to death, God has raised up, loosing the pains of death, 
because it was not possible that he should be held by it." They 
rejected his claims as true, but God vindicated the claims 
of Christ by raising him from the dead. We must see this as 
one of the central things in the resurrection. Not the only 
thing that we have in the resurrection, but this is what we have. Because 
here, Peter is alluding to that, though the language might not 
be the clearest to your minds and saying, well, yeah, here 
we have a vindication of the work of Christ. But nevertheless, 
that is what Peter is saying. To see this in more detail, we 
can turn to the book of Romans. In Romans chapter 1, right at 
the beginning of the letter, We see that the resurrection 
of the Lord Jesus Christ was a vindication of the claims of 
Christ and His Messiahship. Notice in Romans 1, beginning 
in verse 1, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be 
an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised 
before through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning 
his son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David, 
according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power 
according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the 
dead. You see there the language of 
vindicating the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ. declared to 
be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness 
by the resurrection from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus 
Christ was the divine vindication of the claims of Jesus Christ 
the Lord. If it wasn't enough, if you will, 
for that unbelieving generation to reject the claims of Christ 
when they saw a dead man sit up and speak, If it wasn't enough 
to not recognize the veracity of Jesus Christ as the Son of 
God and the Messiah, to see a multitude of bread and fish being brought 
out of just a handful of them. All of these miracles mounted 
one on top of the other to make it known that most certainly 
this Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. But surely, 
Surely, the resurrection of the dead, of the Son of God, the 
Lord Jesus Christ, rising again the third day, should serve to 
bear witness to the veracity, the truth, that this really was 
the Son of God. But nevertheless, they rejected 
His claims as true, and even in the face of a resurrected 
Messiah, they did not believe." And the language here is, again 
in the text, that Apostle Peter uses is, you yourselves also 
know That's previous with regards to his wonders and signs, but 
later on in the book of Acts, it talks about the fact of the 
resurrection, that they also knew that, and nevertheless, 
they reject the truth of the resurrection and the truth that 
this really was the Christ, the Son of the living God. We recognize 
as well, and this is closing up the central message, we notice 
the bringer of the message, the intent of the message, and the 
theological content of the message. is what we need to notice. Thirdly, 
recognize the theological content of the message. It is the death 
and resurrection of Christ. We always need to come back to 
this reality when we talk about the gospel of Christ, which should 
be the stuff central to our Christian profession and proclamation. 
When we talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to understand 
what that means and, of course, what it doesn't mean. And here 
we have Peter using the theological content of the gospel in this 
message of bringing to bear the guilt of the audience. We see 
it simply in the death and resurrection of Christ, verse 23 and 24. The 
gospel of Jesus Christ is not, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you shall be saved. Now, you might be saying, well, 
hold on a minute. That is true, isn't it? Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Thank God 
that that is true and praise God that it is. But you see, 
that command, that invitation, if you will, that offer, but 
I prefer that command, comes upon the heels of the giving 
of the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you shall be saved is not the good news of the Christian 
message, though it is good news. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you will be saved. So what is the gospel? Well, 
we see it here in the content of the message, but we see it 
defined more clearly later on in Revelation as far as a definition 
given in 1 Corinthians 15, for example. If anyone ever asks 
you as a Christian and maybe no one ever has but maybe someone 
has or someone will What what is this gospel that you speak 
of when you say the gospel of Christ? And you say that I need 
to believe that and and be saved. What what are you talking about? 
Well a good place to go to is first Corinthians 15 in fact 
I would say one of the best places to go to for a definition of 
the gospel is is in 1 Corinthians 15, and it is seen in verse 3 
and verse 4, but we'll read beginning in verse 1. Moreover, brethren, 
I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also 
you received and in which you stand, by which also you are 
saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you, 
unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first 
of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins 
according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that 
He rose again the third day. according to the scriptures. 
You see, that is the gospel right there in those two verses, verses 
three and four. The gospel is that Christ died 
for the sins of his people according to the scriptures and that he 
was buried and that he was raised again the third day according 
to the scriptures. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
And upon the heels of that gospel, we bring the command, the invitation, 
the offer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be 
saved. In Romans 4 and verse 25 we have 
some of the same stuff. Definition of the gospel in Romans 
4 and verse 25 for there we read that Christ was delivered up 
because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. You see, the Gospel is that Christ 
died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was 
buried and raised again the third day according to the Scriptures. 
And Peter recognizes the death and the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ in bringing this message of guilt upon the ears of His 
hearers so that they might believe. and or it might justly be condemned. So, the theological content of 
the message, and brethren, the gospel, the reason why, hopefully 
you don't get the impression that, you know, Cam and Jim, 
they're really picky and precise about theological categories 
and terms, and man, they're really strict with that sort of a thing. 
You know, we have definitions, we have confession, we have what 
it means, what it doesn't mean. You know, man, can't we all just 
sit back and bask in the effervescent petals of God's love and not 
have to worry about truth and precision and all of these sorts 
of things. Well, hopefully you don't have that mind. Doctrine 
is important and truth is important. But you see, it is very important 
because of errors out there to hedge ourselves in and to not 
have definitions of a thing that might confuse, that might clutter, 
that might confound, or that might be joining together principles 
and ideas that really aren't to be mixed together. And that's 
why we say the gospel of Jesus Christ is not the invitation 
that follows that gospel. The gospel isn't believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. The gospel is that 
Christ died for the sins of his people, according to the scriptures, 
and that he was buried and rose again the third day, according 
to the scriptures. Very often people say, live the gospel. 
And while we might understand what they mean, that really isn't 
very helpful language, live the gospel, because only one could 
live the gospel, and that was the just one, the holy one, the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the death and the 
resurrection of Christ, if you have not got that already. We 
can live in a manner consistent with the gospel. We can live 
in a manner consistent with our profession of belief in that 
gospel. but we cannot live the death 
and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The theological content 
of the message is the stuff of the gospel, that Christ died 
and rose again for the sins of his people. Lastly then, and 
we'll close with this point because we're looking at the other two 
tonight, lastly, we have the scriptural anticipation. So at 
first, we had the central message, and we did, verse 22 to verse 
24. Now we have the scriptural anticipation 
in verse 25 to verse 31. And first, we need to notice 
that Peter appeals to the Old Testament scriptures to bolster 
his argument. You see, hopefully you see in 
this sermon something very similar to what you see in this church 
when we preach to you. We see a message being delivered 
or a point being made and then support from the scriptures and 
then the implications of the message, and then an invitation, 
like Peter has here at the end, repent and believe, repent and 
be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. 
Well, here we have Peter bringing this central message of Jesus 
Christ, and then we have him bringing biblical support, the 
scriptural anticipation. He points to Psalm 16, or he 
actually quotes Psalm 16, and notice the language of four here 
in verse 25, because Peter brings the message, and then he uses 
this as support. It's a therefore, or a for, verse 
25. For David says concerning him, 
I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right 
hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, 
and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will 
rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul 
in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption, 
You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full 
of joy in your presence." You see, we need to understand, brethren, 
that Psalm 16 was written by the hand of David, but we'll 
just round down and say a thousand years before the coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to understand that 
it was about the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have this dual interpretation 
or this dual sort of meaning where, you know, back then for 
that generation, it had the end of its meaning for David and 
for covenant Israel. But now this side of an ascended 
Christ, we now apply that to the Lord Jesus Christ and see 
its fulfillment there. You see, Peter says with respect 
to David afterwards, men and brethren, let me speak freely 
to you of the Patriarch, Patriarch David, that he is both dead and 
buried. and His tomb is with us to this 
day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God has sworn 
with an oath to Him that of the fruit of His body, according 
to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on His throne, 
He foreseeing this spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ." 
So when David penned Psalm 16, he was not penning it of David. He was not referring to himself 
as the Holy One. He was not writing concerning 
King David, but he foreseeing this, that is, the resurrection 
of Jesus Christ, spoke concerning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So Peter, as a good preacher, 
owned by God for the proclamation of Christ, brings to the fore 
Psalm 16, showing these, that this was written concerning Christ 
and Christ had fulfilled the Scripture. And you see, they 
would have known. this scripture they would have had no doubt 
a high esteem for King David and so this would have brought 
great strength to Peter's argument that this Jesus had fulfilled 
that which was beforehand written by the pen of David. So notice 
that Peter appeals to the Old Testament scriptures and then 
notice as well secondly that Peter introduces the proper understanding 
of the psalm by appealing to the actual grave of King David. 
Now, we already read this, we already noted that, but Peter 
brings to bear the proper interpretation because he wants them to understand 
what we just talked about, that this is not a psalm about David. And he brings to bear the reality 
that there was a grave that they could go visit. He perhaps even 
pointed in the general direction of where it was. It wasn't a 
stone's throw away, but they could have He could have pointed 
in the general direction And he says this is that David is 
both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day Peter 
wants to bring to bear the proper interpretation and understanding 
of this psalm violet by appealing to the actual grave of King David 
and thirdly and lastly under the scriptural anticipation notice 
that Peter interprets the the Old Testament for his audience 
with its proper Christological trajectory. That's a phrase that's 
perhaps large, and perhaps you've never heard that before, or maybe 
you have, but that's a phrase that's very important. The Old 
Testament has a Christological trajectory. That trajectory simply 
means the, you know, the direction of a thing, perhaps. A curve 
or a something moving towards something. A line of action and 
movement towards a thing. That's what the Old Testament 
or that's what we have in the Old Testament. Christological 
trajectory. The Old Testament is about the 
Lord Jesus Christ and is pointing to and moving forward towards 
the fulfillment by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Peter brings to 
bear that proper interpretation of the Old Testament. And they 
would have. Again, it is not the case that 
the Old Testament authors of Holy Scripture were penning these 
things completely unaware that, oh, this is about the Lord Jesus 
Christ, as if God was using them to pen these letters only so 
that a future generation may happen upon the reality that 
these are concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. But remember, Christ 
indicts his audience for not knowing that the Old Testament 
Scriptures were about him. You search the Holy Scriptures 
for in them you think that you have eternal life. These are 
they that testify of me. He, on the day of his resurrection, 
he visits his disciples, and what does he do? He opens up 
the scriptures to them, the law, the prophets, and the Psalms, 
so that they might understand that these all spoke concerning 
him. And so it's not the case that we have in the Old Testament, 
the writers of the Old Testament are writing and thinking that 
this is only concerning the covenant people of that time, completely 
unaware of its messianic implications. No, they knew. And to whatever 
degree revelation was given to them, to whatever degree God 
was making known to them the mysteries of Christ, we have 
the fact that they knew that they were writing concerning 
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to 1 Peter for a 
moment. Because the inspired Peter says it a whole lot better 
than I do, that is for sure. And notice in 1 Peter we have 
the reality of this brought out. That they knew that they were 
writing concerning the glories of Christ. In 1 Peter 1 at verse 
10, of this salvation, that is, perfect salvation by the triune 
God affected in time and history by Jesus Christ, of this salvation 
the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied 
of the grace that would come to you, searching what or what 
manner of time the spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating 
when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and 
the glories that would follow. You see, the authors of the Old 
Testament knew. They had a messianic consciousness. They were writing knowing that 
there was a promised seed of the woman who would come. to 
crush the head of the serpent and who would, in the process, 
have his heel bruised. They knew, for example, the prophet 
Isaiah, when he was writing Isaiah 53, he knew that that was about 
this coming servant who would come and be the bearer of the 
sins of his people. They were testified beforehand 
by the Spirit of Christ concerning the sufferings of Christ and 
the glories that would follow. Well, tonight we're going to 
have a look at the historical fulfillment and the weighty implications, 
but we're closing now, and so it is fitting that we close with 
some weighty implications before those tonight. You see, if you're 
here this morning and you are like these back in the day, you 
were not present there, but you have a disposition similar, which 
is you reject the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're here and you're 
not his and you're in unbelief for whatever reason, you're here 
and that is a good thing. But you stand with these who 
rejected the Prince of Life and put him to death upon a Roman 
implement of execution because you do not believe. Whatever 
you count Christ as, a prophet, a wise man, a noble teacher, 
but not the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You stand with 
these who rejected him, who cast him outside of the city to be 
executed upon the cross. And you see Peter's message is 
to you in this sense that he wants you to know the stuff of 
verse 36, therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly 
that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord 
and Christ. You see this it would have been, 
and don't make the mistake, don't make the mistake of of thinking, 
you know, we're 2,000 years removed from this event, and, you know, 
we don't have the stuff of the crucifixion of Christ fresh in 
our memory, and that sort of a thing. Don't make the mistake, 
though, of the weightiness of this statement that we have here 
in Acts 2. Consider the original audience 
just for a moment. What Peter is saying is that this one, that 
was less than two months ago, battered and bruised and spit 
upon and lashed and opened up by Roman implements of torture. 
Hammered with Roman nails into that implement of execution. 
A bloody massacre upon that cross. Peter is saying this one was 
raised by God. Vindicated. a victorious king. This one has ascended to the 
right hand of God. He's been given dominion and 
glory and a kingdom. And so for them back there to 
reject him, colossal folly and massive mistake. Because he will 
one day return to judge the living and the dead. And those who reject 
him will not be under the blessed comfort of his rule and his peace 
and the solemnity that comes with believing in the gospel 
of Jesus Christ. But rather when he returns those 
who reject him will be under his severe justice. They will 
be dashed to pieces as a potter's vessel. And so this message is 
for you as well. When he closes in a way his sermon 
and says in verse 38, repent and let every one of you be baptized 
in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe that gospel that he died 
for the sins of his people, and that he was buried, and that 
he rose again the third day for the sins of his people. Believe 
and you will be saved. And believer this morning, you 
know I think, I don't know exactly what it may be, but at times 
I think we can perhaps get carried off by the reality that these 
events, the delivering up of Christ by the determined purpose 
and foreknowledge of God, the delivering up by lawless hands 
2,000 years ago, the resurrection, that's a long time ago, and we 
can somehow get detached, if you will, into the history of 
the thing. But you see, this is the living Christ. Yes, the 
text says they put the prince of life to death, but you see, 
he rose again victorious from the grave. He ascended to the 
right hand of the majesty on high, and for you, believer, 
he ever lives to make intercession for you. Do you know what that 
means? He ever lives to make intercession for you. It's the 
stuff of that hymn, arise, my soul, arise, shake off thy guilty 
fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my 
behalf appears. When we stumble, when we sin, 
when we transgress, The ugly head of remaining corruption 
rears its head. We have an advocate with the 
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Daily we fly to him. We don't 
look inside our own bosom for the movements of the spirit, 
and we don't look inside our own bosom for good deeds wrought 
in holiness of heart to commend us back to God. but rather we 
fly to the blood, to the risen and exalted Christ, and therein 
we find our blessed hope, our blessed assurance. Well, let 
us pray. Heavenly Father, we rejoice in 
our Savior. We rejoice in Jesus Christ. We 
thank you that you did send him according to your determined 
purpose and foreknowledge, and that he was, Lord God, crucified 
upon Calvary's tree. We don't look upon that as the 
silencing of an insurrectionist, but we look upon that as as our 
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, effecting perfectly the salvation 
of a multitude that no man can number from every tribe and tongue 
and people and nation. And Lord God, we rejoice in that 
truth and thank you that we can be counted among the number by 
your amazing, your victorious grace. And we would ask you, 
Lord God, to impress upon us daily the glories, the riches, 
the excellencies of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that we 
might simply rejoice daily in our Savior, finding all things 
in Him and having the stuff whereby we can conduct ourselves in a 
manner worthy of that gospel. We do pray, Lord God, for those 
who came in this morning outside of Christ Jesus, that they would 
not leave outside of Christ in unbelief, but rather now, Lord 
God, you would pour out upon them that free and amazing grace 
that you would cause them by that grace to be brought from 
the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Son of your love 
that you might bring them forth and that by grace they might 
sing along with us. Hallelujah, what a Savior. And 
it's in Christ's name that we do pray. Amen.