"God's Plan" Sermon: Acts 2:22-41

“God’s Plan”
[Acts 2:22-41]
June 28, 2009 Second Reformed Church

Who killed Jesus?

When Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” was released, many people objected to it as being anti-Semitic, because it presented the Jews as being the ones who put Jesus to death – that they were the ones who desired it and pursued it and saw it accomplished.

Who killed Jesus?

We have heard the second half of Peter’s Pentecost sermon read this morning. We have already seen that Peter began his sermon by refuting the ridiculous accusation that they were able to speak in all of the languages present by being drunk. Peter explained that what happened was what had been prophesied by the prophet Joel, and they were now indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, and He gave them the gift of being able to speak in all of the languages of those present so that Gospel could be preached to them and understood by them. The Holy Spirit now indwells every Christian and gives each one of us the gifts that we need to be God’s people and to glorify Him.

Peter began, in this section, by calling the crowd to attention, and telling them that Jesus of Nazareth was attested by God with works, wonders, and signs that God did in their midst, “as you yourselves know.” Peter began, not as John does, by talking about Jesus’ Divinity, but by calling to their mind the Man, Jesus, the Nazarene, the Man that they had seen perform works and wonders and signs – which He could not have done unless they were done through Him by God. He was an Innocent Man. Peter said, “Come to attention Listen to me This Man, Jesus the Nazarene, Whom you all know, did works and wonders and signs by God working through Him, and you all saw the things that He did – “

Jesus, an Innocent Man, was crucified according to the Eternal Plan of God. It was always God’s Plan, from before the foundation of the world to put Jesus to death in this way. God killed Jesus. As Peter wrote, “[Jesus] was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in these last times for your sake,” (I Peter 2:1:20, ESV).

Remember, these people were gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks, so the very people – the crowd, the high priests, and the Pharisees – who cried out, “Crucify Him ” would likely have been in the crowd.

We can imagine them exhaling to hear Peter say this: “O.K. He’s attributing the death of Jesus, an Innocent Man, to God; he’s not blaming us – we’re off the hook. He’s heading somewhere else with his sermon.”

“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 – this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed...”

“Yes, Jesus, an Innocent Man, was killed according to the Plan of God, but you, you supposedly pious Jews, you crucified Him and you killed Him ” There is no getting around the fact that from the beginning of Jesus’ Ministry the Jews, and the Pharisees and Sadducees in particular, sought to have Jesus, an Innocent Man, put to death and saw to it that He was killed.

And we can hear them crying out, “It’s wasn’t us, it was the Romans! We never touched Him; Pilate ordered His crucifixion! ” And it’s true – the Jews didn’t physically put Jesus to death – they couldn’t – they were under the rule of Rome and Rome didn’t allow the Jews to carry out capital punishment on their own: they had to bring such cases to Rome for prosecution.

No, the Jews could not physically carry out capital punishment, so they brought Jesus, an Innocent Man, to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, under false charges, and asked to have Him crucified. And Pilate interviewed Jesus and concluded that He was innocent (cf. Matthew 27:24; Luke 23:4). Pilate told the crowd that he could find nothing in the Man to prosecute, much less put to death. But Pilate was a man driven by fear and power.

The crowd cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar” (John 19:12b, ESV). Pilate was not going to allow his loyalty to Caesar to be questioned for the sake of a Jewish Rabbi Who would not even defend Himself. So Pilate gave the people what they wanted and ordered Jesus to be crucified.

God killed Jesus. The Jews killed Jesus. The Romans killed Jesus. An Innocent Man.

But Jesus didn’t stay dead. Peter explained, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” Why not? Peter quotes David in Psalm 19 where David prophesied that God’s Holy One would not remain in Hades – the land of the dead – He would not see corruption – His Body would not decay – because He was Holy, and God would raise Him from the dead.

Peter explained that this was a prophecy about Jesus, not about David, because David died and his tomb was open for anyone to visit and see his bones. “This Psalm is not about David, himself, as many of you have thought, because David died – his bones are in his tomb – he decayed – you have seen his bones when you have visited his tomb. David is prophesying about Someone else – an Innocent Man – a Holy Man.”

“And, not only that, since David is a prophet, and God swore to him that he would always have one of his ancestors on his throne , and you have just seen that David was prophesying the resurrection of the Man, Jesus, in Psalm 19, then He is also the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, and all of we Galileans who are now able to speak in your languages through the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit testify that we are all eyewitnesses to the Man Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead.”

But there was another Psalm Peter wanted to point them to – Psalm 110, where David wrote, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Now, we don’t see it in our English translations, but two different words are used for “Lord” in this verse: the first “Lord” is YHWH – the One God of Israel – Who gave this most personal Name of God to Moses when Moses met God in the burning bush. The second “Lord” is Adonai, which is a more general term and can apply both to humans and God. But who does it apply to here?

Peter tells them to understand the text: “YHWH [God] said to Adonai, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” David is not Adonai – he is not seated at the Right Hand of God – he is lying in his grave, and David did not have all of his enemies defeated – even his own sons fought against him in life. No, it was Jesus, the Innocent – the One Holy Man – Who Peter and the others were eyewitnesses to His Ascension back to His Throne at the Right Hand of the Father.

What does this mean? If Jesus is seated at the Right Hand of God, the Father, He is more than an Innocent Man – more than a Holy Man – He is none other than God. Peter said, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God made him both Lord and Christ.” Understand that the word that is translated “made” in our text indicates “being declared.” It is not as though Peter is saying that Jesus didn’t use to be Lord and Christ, but now He is. No, Peter is saying that through Jesus’ Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension, God declares the Truth that Jesus is Lord and Christ. He is the enthroned God. He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior that they had waited four thousand years for.

“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” This was all according to God’s Holy Plan, but the Romans killed Him and the Jews killed Him – they killed, not merely an Innocent Man, but Jesus, the God-Man, the Son of God, the Savior of all those who will believe in Him Alone for salvation. They murdered the Incarnate God – the Romans and the Jews – the Gentiles and the Jews. You and me.

You crucified Jesus! You crucified Jesus! You crucified Jesus! I crucified Jesus!

And you might be tempted to say, “No, no, pastor – you’ve gone beyond what the text says – Peter is not saying that all of humanity crucified Jesus, but that certain Romans and certain Jews had Him put to death.” It is true, in history, certain Romans and certain Jews actually saw to it that Jesus, the God-Man, was murdered. But the Scripture points the finger and lays the guilt on all of us:

“For while we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6, ESV).

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (I Corinthians 15:3, ESV).

“[In rejecting Christ], they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” (Hebrews 6:6b, ESV).

If you have every sinned – if you have ever done something that God has forbidden or not done something that God has commanded – you crucified Jesus. You murdered Jesus. I murdered Jesus.

In the Mercy of God, many in that crowd were “cut to the heart” and cried out, “Brothers, what shall we do?” It’s the only response that makes sense. If we understand that each one of us crucified Jesus – each time we sin, it is as though we cry out, “Crucify Him again ” – if we understand that we murdered, not merely an Innocent Man, but the God-Man, the Savior that God sent, what other response could possibly make sense?

If we understand that we killed the Son of God, what punishment might be appropriate? In our country, when a person commits first-degree murder of a fellow human being – a fellow sinner – he or she is sent to prison or put to death. That is what we do for murdering a sinner. What punishment is just for murdering the Incarnate God? The Scripture tells us that the appropriate punishment is to suffer for all of eternity in body, soul, mind, and spirit. That sounds about right, doesn’t it? But I don’t want that, do you?

“What shall we do?”

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Repent – do a complete turn around – confess your sins to God and then commit yourself to not do them any more. Ask God to forgive you for all that you have done wrong and then do everything in your power not to do anything against God again. Repentance involves a complete turn-around – that’s what the word means. And if you come to Jesus, asking Him to forgive you for your sins, believing that He is God and Savior, He will forgive you.

And then be baptized - as a public sign and seal of the change in your life.

And, as a Christian, God, Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, will indwell you and teach you and lead you and remind you of all that Jesus said.

Either that, or pay your debt to God – eternally.

Peter continues by explaining that this salvation is for every type of human being: this promise of salvation is for “you” – it is for those Jews that were there are that first Pentecost – any there that confessed their sins to God and believed in Jesus Alone received His Salvation. And this promise of salvation is for “your children” – God did not break the Covenant that He made with Abraham – the Gospel of repentance and forgiveness is first to the biological Jews and their descendants (Cf. Romans 1:16). But the promise of salvation is also for “all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” That means that this salvation is open to the non-Jews – to the Gentiles – to you and me – to everyone – every type of person no matter what their heritage or nationality. God is calling a people to repentance and belief from the Jews and their descendants and from all of the other nations of the world.

Peter continued preaching for a long time, as Luke tells us, “And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’”

That is the Gospel: before the foundation of the world, God decided that God the Son would Incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ, live, die, rise, and ascend back to His Throne at the Right Hand of the Father, for His Glory, and for the salvation of all those who will repent and believe in Him. That is the message this morning. That is the message every morning.

We are celebrating the 93rd anniversary of this church this morning. This church exists to let everyone know the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then to teach how we live that out. This church will continue to exist as long as we continue to do that and God is pleased to use us to that end in this place. Second Reformed Church is not a social club. We don’t get together merely to make each other feel good. We don’t open our doors merely to get people off the streets. The point and purpose of this church, and the Church in general, is to direct us to Jesus Christ and His Salvation. God is using us to gather “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

If God is calling you, now is the time to repent an ask for His forgiveness, and He will give it to all those who sincerely repent. On that first Pentecost, after Peter preached, three thousand people repented and were baptized. What about today?

Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for sending Your Son to be our salvation. We thank You that You did not just leave us alone in our sin, but may the Way for us to be reconciled to You through the Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus. We ask that each one who has heard Your Word this morning would be “cut to the heart” and come to belief. And we ask, as we celebrate our 93rd anniversary, that we would understand that You have given us this church building as an outpost to shine the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May we renew our commitment to You and the work You have called us to in Your Mercy. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.