CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 2:22. Mighty works, wonders, and signs.—Compare 2 Corinthians 12:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:9; Hebrews 2:4. Of these terms, the first, δυνάμεις, refers to the powers by which Christ’s miracles were performed; the second, τέρατα, to the astonishment they awakened; the third, σημεῖα, to the significance they possessed.
Acts 2:23. Counsel and foreknowledge are distinguished as antecedent and consequent.
Acts 2:24. The pains of death.—τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ θανάτου. Quoted from the LXX. (Psalms 18:5; Psalms 116:3)—the Hebrew having “the cords of death.”
Acts 2:25. David speaketh.—In Psalms 16:8-11, which is here ascribed to the sweet singer of Israel as distinguished from the Hebrew Psalmist generally (Acts 13:35). Concerning Him.—Not merely words that might be applied to Him—i.e., Christ—but words that typically and prophetically referred to Him.
Acts 2:26. My tongue as in the LXX. instead of “my glory” as in the Hebrew. The LXX. may have regarded man’s faculty of speech as his highest excellence; and Peter, reflecting on the miracle of Pentecost, may have agreed with them.
Acts 2:27. Hell, ἅδης, Hades, the unseen world, the realm of the dead, comprising two regions, Paradise, the abode of the blessed (Luke 23:43), and Gehenna, the prison of the lost (Matthew 5:29-30), is here represented as a rapacious destroyer.
Acts 2:28. The ways of life were those which led from the realm of death to that of life—a hint of the doctrine of the resurrection. With Thy countenance signified not “by” but “in Thy presence”—i.e., in heaven.
Acts 2:29. Let me freely speak.—Better, it is lawful for me to speak with boldness. David is here called patriarch as founder of the royal family. His sepulchre is with us.—On Mount Zion (1 Kings 2:10), where most of the kings of Judah were buried. Compare Nehemiah 3:16; Josephus, Ant., VII. xv. 3, XIII. viii. 4; Wars, I. ii.
5. “David’s tomb, on the south side of Mount Zion, is still pointed out by the guides. The tomb is described by one who has seen it as an immense sarcophagus in a room comparatively insignificant in its dimensions, but very gorgeously furnished by the Moslems, under one of whose mosques it stands” (Lawrence Hutton, in Harper’s Monthly Magazine, March 1895, p. 549).
Acts 2:30. A prophet was a divinely inspired person, hence one who could predict future events. The words, according to the flesh He would raise up Christ, are wanting in the best MSS.
Acts 2:31. His soul is also omitted by the best authorities.
Acts 2:32. Whereof, or of whom. In the former case the subject of witness is the resurrection; in the latter, the person of Christ.
Acts 2:33. By the right hand of God.—I.e., through His almighty power; compare Acts 5:31 (Calvin, Meyer, Zöckler, and others). The translation “at or to the right hand of God” (Neander, De Wette, Bleek, Hackett, and others), though admissible, is not so good.
Acts 2:34. For David is not ascended should be did not ascend; but he saith himself in Psalms 110.
(1) which Christ ascribes to David (Matthew 22:43; Mark 12:36). The Lord said unto my Lord, etc.—Thus distinguishing between himself and his Lord, who could be no other than the Messiah.
Acts 2:36. All the, or every house of Israel shows that Peter’s address was directed exclusively to the Jews. Lord and Christ.—Compare Ephesians 1:22: “Head over all” and “Head of the Church.” In both passages the general expression precedes, the specific follows.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 2:22-36
Peter’s Sermon.
2. The Mystery of Pentecost traced up to Christ
I. The earthly life of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:22).—
1. His human nature. “A man”—i.e., no mythical creation or docetical simulacrum, but a bonâ fide flesh and blood personality; a genuine member of the race, possessed of a true body and a reasonable soul like the ordinary descendants of Adam. The certainty of this was attested by the fact that He lived among men, performed actions which they saw and uttered words which they heard, sorrowed and suffered like the rest of His contemporaries, and was eventually put to death at their hands. That Peter in connecting the Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Ghost with Him takes as a starting point His humanity does not signify that Peter was in doubt of His divinity (Matthew 16:16; John 21:17), or regarded that only as a consequence of His exaltation, but merely that in attempting to gain a hearing from his countrymen he commenced with a proposition which he and they held in common—viz., that Christ had been amongst them as a man. That He had been even from the first more than this Peter believed and proceeded to show (Acts 2:34-36).
2. His divine attestation. “Approved,” shown forth; accredited as a special messenger to His countrymen—
(1) by God, so that, like the prophets of old, He could at least claim to be an ambassador of Heaven, a plenipotentiary and representative of Jehovah (Luke 4:18; John 6:39; John 16:28).
(2) Through “mighty works and wonders and signs”—i.e., deeds of power, of mystery, and of significance, which God did, by Him, so that men, reasoning like Nicodemus (John 3:2), ought to have had no hesitation in recognising Him as “a teacher come from God.”
3. In the most public manner—not at all in secret, as His unbelieving brethren insinuated (John 7:4)—so that the fullest evidence was furnished of who and what He was and claimed to be (John 14:11). Though Peter represents God as working by and through Jesus, he does not thereby deny that Christ performed His miracles by His own inherent power; simply in addressing his countrymen, he asserts the least that could be affirmed about Christ—viz., that the divine power manifested itself through Him.
II. The atoning death of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:23).—This Peter represents as having been brought about by a concurrence of human and divine will and action.
1. In accordance with the divine purpose. Reverting to the original and eternal decrees of God, who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11), Peter finds a place among them for the crucifixion of Jesus. The death of Christ was in his view no accident which had surprised either Christ Himself or God. As the story of the arrest in Gethsemane shows that Christ freely surrendered Himself into the hands of His captors (John 18:1-11), so does Peter here affirm that God delivered Him into their toils, not because He was unable to rescue His darling from the power of the dog (Psalms 22:20), but in pursuance of a deliberate and determinate counsel, formed in eternity, to thus save man from sin and death (1 Peter 1:2; 1 Peter 1:20).
2. By an infamous act of betrayal. Though the person of the traitor is not named, clearly Judas is thought of as the perpetrator of this wicked deed. (Compare Matthew 26:15; John 19:11.) As the counsel of God did not compel the man of Kerioth to sell Christ to His foes, so neither did it absolve him from guilt for so doing. While the predestination and foreknowledge of God are incontrovertible facts, being involved in the very conception of God, yet must they ever be conceived by us in such a way as neither to make God the Author of sin nor to destroy the efficiency of second causes.
3. By a cruel deed of crucifixion. The tragic event was too recent for any call on Peter’s part to reproduce the spectacle. Doubtless the strangers from foreign parts had been made acquainted with the deed of blood. Peter restricts himself to two points:
(1) That while the instruments of the crucifixion were “lawless men,” meaning, most likely, the Roman soldiers,
(2) The real authors of it were the people “ye,” who cried “Away with Him!” or their leaders who instigated them to demand His death. Both acted in ignorance, comparatively at least, of the personal dignity of Christ and of the heinous character of their crime (Acts 3:17; 1 Corinthians 2:8), yet were neither thereby excused.
III. The triumphant resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:24-32). Peter presents this in a fourfold light.
1. As effected by God. “Whom God raised up” (Acts 2:24; compare Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10; Acts 10:40; Acts 13:30; Acts 17:31; 1 Peter 1:21), “having loosed the pangs of death.” Quoted from the LXX. version of Psalms 18:5, which in the Hebrew reads “cords of death”; the imagery lying in “the pangs of death” may be different, but the sense is the same. The Hebrew poet represents death as a strong man, who binds his victim with cords, which must be untied to admit of resurrection; the Christian apostle compares death’s agonies to the pains of parturition—doubtless because in both cases life follows—with this difference, that he depicts these as not ending with the expiry of physical life, but as pursuing the body into the grave in the form of corruption, and requiring to be loosed-or made to cease in order that their victim might be raised. In Christ’s case both conceptions were realised. His body saw no corruption, and the cords of death were unloosed.
2. As necessitated by Christ Himself. “It was not possible that He should be holden of death” (Acts 2:24). Inasmuch as the like averment could not be made of any ordinary son of man, the use of it concerning Christ marked Him off as standing in a distinct category by Himself. The impossibility of death’s dominion over Christ remaining unbroken lay in this, either that He, Christ, was the Resurrection and the Life (John 5:26; John 11:25), and had power in Himself to resume as well as to lay down His life when He pleased (John 10:17-18), or that, having satisfied the claims of justice in behalf of man by dying and lying in a sinner’s grave, the conditions of His covenant with the Father demanded His restoration to life (Isaiah 53:10-12).
3. As foretold by David. “David saith concerning Him.”
(1) That Peter referred to David the sweet singer of Israel as the author of this psalm, and did not merely use the term David as a convenient synonym for the Hebrew poet, or for the collection of hymns and spiritual songs that passed current under his name, is obvious from even a cursory glance at the passage, and must be held as confirmed by the fact that Paul also, indirectly at least, ascribed it to the son of Jesse (Acts 13:35), notwithstanding that the higher critics of to-day pretty generally assert that both Peter and Paul were mistaken (?).
(2) That the psalm was prophetically written with an outlook to Christ must be maintained on the same twofold apostolic authority. That the passage cited literally from the LXX. version of the psalm (Acts 2:8-11) could not have been meant by David to apply to himself was apparent, first, from the language (e.g., Thy Holy One), which befitted not a sinful mortal; and secondly, from the circumstance that David saw corruption and never rose again—his tomb being amongst them on Mount Zion at the very moment when the Apostle spoke (Acts 2:29, compare Acts 13:36). That it was designed to fore-announce the resurrection of Christ, Peter contended, was the unambiguous testimony of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:31).
4. As attested by the apostles and primitive disciples. “Whereof” or “of whom”—i.e., of the fact or the person; “we all,” the one hundred and twenty of Acts 1:15, “are witnesses” (Acts 2:32). If none of them had been present at the opening of the sepulchre, it is probable that all of them had looked on their risen Lord after His emergence from the tomb. Nor can it be doubtful that what these first witnesses understood by Christ’s resurrection was not the exaltation of His spirit to celestial life after His death (Ritschl), but the actual return of His body, though in a glorified form, from the tomb.
IV. The glorious exaltation of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:33-36).—That Peter, as well as Luke and Paul, distinguished between the resurrection and the exaltation of Christ is too manifest to be successfully challenged. Having treated of the former occurrence, he naturally advances to speak of the latter, replying in succession to the following unspoken inquiries:
1. Whither?—“Into the heavens” (compare Acts 1:11; Luke 24:51; 1 Peter 3:22; Hebrews 9:24) and up to the right hand of God” (see Acts 7:55; Mark 14:62; Mark 16:19; Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1). This also had been a subject of prophecy by David in Psalms 110:1-2, who could not have referred to himself for the simple reason that he “had not ascended into the heavens,” and therefore must have spoken of Christ. N.B.—The Davidic authorship of Psalms 110 is guaranteed by Christ (Matthew 22:43-45).
2. By whom?—“By the right hand of God.” Though not the better of the possible renderings of this clause, it contains a thought in full accord with the teaching of Scripture, that Christ’s exaltation was the work of the Father (see Ephesians 1:20; Philippians 2:9), who so rewarded Him for His redeeming work.
3. For what?—To be “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).
(1) Lord, or possessor of divine dominion, an idea already expressed in His sitting at the right hand of God as partner of His throne, which dominion, though originally and from eternity belonging to Him as the preincarnate Word (John 1:1; John 17:5), was now conferred on His divine manhood in reward for His obedience unto death (Philippians 2:9; Hebrews 1:3; Revelation 3:21).
(2) Christ or Messiah, which signified not that Christ had not been Messiah in the days of His flesh (John 4:26), but that His Messiahship was, by His exaltation, incontestably proved, and that the purposes for which His Messiahship had been constituted could not begin to realise themselves in all their fulness until after His Ascension. That is to say, He was not to be a temporal deliverer rescuing Israel from political thraldom and erecting a world-empire upon earth, but a spiritual Saviour, wielding authority from heaven.
4. How long?—“Till His enemies should be made the footstool of His feet” (Acts 2:35). Till the ends contemplated by His mediatorial sovereignty should be accomplished (1 Corinthians 15:23-28). Till all His believing people should be fully, perfectly, and finally saved (John 17:24). Till all His unbelieving adversaries should be reduced into absolute, if still unwilling subjection (Philippians 2:10-11).
V. The Mediatorial Activity of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:33).—This, according to Peter, was—
1. Authorised by Christ’s exaltation to the right hand of the Father. Manifestly, only one possessed of divine authority could act as the glorified Redeemer is here represented as doing. More, only one who was the equal and fellow of the Most High. A Moses might serve as mediator for a nation; a mere man would be insufficient to officiate as mediator for the race.
2. Prepared for by the promise of the Father that He would pour out the Spirit upon all flesh in Christ’s days—a promise given to Christ beforehand in the words of Old Testament prophecy which referred to Him, and renewed to Him on His exaltation.
3. Manifested by the Pentecostal effusion of the Holy Spirit, which Peter now ascribes to Him. “He hath poured forth this,” an indirect proof of Christ’s exaltation and divinity.
4. Verified by the unusual phenomena which the house of Israel saw and heard.
Lessons.—
1. The close and intimate connection with one another of all evangelical doctrines. This a powerful argument in favour of their truth.
2. The reality of distinct Messianic prophecy. A point contested by modern criticism.
3. The inspiration of the sacred Scriptures and, in particular, of the Psalms of David.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 2:22. Did Jesus of Nazareth really Work Miracles?—
1. “It is incontestable that Christ” (in asking the faith of his contemporaries) “appealed very emphatically to His miracles, to His ‘works,’ which He was able to perform in virtue of the divine power which stood at His command, to His ‘signs’ in which His Godlike character, and specially the energy and grace pertaining thereto, showed themselves.”
2. “In all the wonderful works which the Evangelists report of Him, the question concerns occurrences in which, if they really happened so (i.e., as reported), we cannot at all find merely specially striking arrangements of a common divine providence ruling in the world and nature, but must recognise a direct intrusion of superterrestrial divine power into the regularly ordered connection of finite natural things and the forces deposited in them by God.”
3. “It is, and remains, incontestable, that Jesus intended to perform such works and referred (His contemporaries) to them—and that such works were not first assigned to Him by a late, fabulous tradition, which, at the same time, put into His mouth the (above-mentioned) appeal to them.”
4. “Apart from every other thing, it is unthinkable that His first disciples and apostles would have ascribed to themselves miraculous powers, as they unquestionably did, had not such miraculous powers been known of Him.”
5. Hence “to a historical critic, who will deny to Jesus all real miraculous activity, remains only the supposition possible—at least, if he is clear and honest—that Jesus and His disciples, with respect to this matter of miracles, practised deliberate and constant deception” (Köstlin, Der Glaube, p. 28).
Acts 2:23. Divine Afterknowledge and Foreknowledge.
I. The divine afterknowledge.—Does God know all persons, other creatures, or things that have existed, as well as all occurrences that have taken place in the past?
1. This question must be answered in the affirmative. God’s eye never closes. It never droops. He has never slumbered or slept. He is never unobservant (Psalms 139:1-16; Psalms 147:4; John 21:17; Hebrews 4:13).
2. The effect of this knowledge on persons, creatures, things, events past, is nothing. It does not in the least degree modify their nature. It does not make them either good or bad. It does not alter their relations to one another or to God.
II. The divine foreknowledge.—Does God foreknow all the persons, other creatures, events, and things that shall be in the future?
1. Some theologians have maintained that God can and does foreknow things necessary, but not things contingent—i.e., such things as owe their existence to free will. But this idea is not tenable, inasmuch as—
(1) It ascribes ignorance to God, and
(2) is at variance with the existence of prophecy in the Bible, and
(3) traverses the statements of both Peter (1 Peter 1:2) and Paul (Romans 8:28-30).
2. Other theologians hold that it is neither logical nor scriptural to maintain the universal foreknowledge of God. “Whatever is actually foreknown must, they think, be actually fixed by being foreknown.” But “knowledge, whether simple (i.e., present) or after or fore, never fixes the object which it knows.” “Things foreknown, whether necessary or contingent, will come to pass, but each according to its own nature”—things necessary as necessary, things contingent as contingent.
3. The true theology is that while all things are foreknown nothing is thereby bound to be. “There is no certainty imparted to the essence of the things that are foreknown.”—James Morison, D.D.
Acts 2:25; Acts 2:34.—The Two Right Hands.
I. God upon the right hand of Christ (Acts 2:25).—This was equivalent to a promise from God to Christ of four things.
1. Of support and protection in the execution of His redemptive work. Compare Isaiah 42:1; Matthew 12:18.
2. Of joy and satisfaction in the inception and progress of His work. Compare Proverbs 8:31; Isaiah 42:4; John 15:11; John 17:13.
3. Of hope in death.—Not merely of inward peace, but of prospective recovery from death’s dominion. Compare Isaiah 53:10; Isaiah 11:4. Of a glorious resurrection to embodied existence beyond the grave.— Isaiah 53:11-12.
II. Christ upon the right hand of God (Acts 2:34).—This could only mean the enjoyment on Christ’s part of three things additional.
1. Co-ordination (in the sense of equality) with God—i.e., essential divinity. Compare Zechariah 13:7.
2. Communion (in the sense of fellowship) with God—i.e., such converse as alone could be held by equals. Compare John 1:1; John 5:19; John 20:3. Co-partnership (in the sense of dominion) with God—i.e., the possession of absolute power. Compare Daniel 7:13; Matthew 28:18; Ephesians 1:21; Philippians 2:9; 1 Peter 3:22; Revelation 17:14.
Acts 2:25-28. The Lord upon the Right Hand.—What that signifies to the follower of Christ.
I. Confidence.—He shall not be moved. With such a Companion and Protector, why should we either be troubled or afraid? (Proverbs 29:27; Isaiah 26:3).
II. Joy.—Arising from a sense of the divine presence and fellowship. All the nobler faculties of that man who has God for a defence begin to exult (Psalms 5:11; Romans 5:11).
III. Hope.—When the good man’s flesh lies down to tabernacle in the grave, it does not do so in despair, but rather with the joyous expectation of a future coming forth (Proverbs 14:32; Acts 24:15; Romans 8:19).
IV. Resurrection.—His soul will not be left in Hades, neither will his body be abandoned as a prey to corruption. It may be allowed to see corruption, but that which is sown in corruption will be raised in incorruption (1 Corinthians 15:42).
V. Immortality.—The good man will not be raised to judgment and condemnation, but to justification and eternal life (John 5:29).
VI. Glory.—He will be filled with gladness with Jehovah’s countenance; he will behold Christ’s glory and experience, the highest felicity in Christ’s presence (1 John 3:2; Revelation 7:13-17; John 17:24).
Acts 2:31. The Resurrection of Christ.—Was—
I. The necessary counterpart of His death.
II. His final victory over all hostile powers.
III. The divine attestation of His Messiahship.
IV. The presupposition of His exaltation as “the Son of God in power.”
V. The pledge of His supremacy over the living and the dead.
VI. The seal of all blessings, rights, and privileges given through Christ, especially of the forgiveness of sins and the future resurrection.
VII. The constraining argument for a new life in the spirit on the part of Christians.
VIII. The decisive proof for the reality, supernaturalness, and eternity of the kingdom of God.
IX. The starting point of all Apostolic missions and evangelical preaching.—Bornemann, Unterricht im Christentum, p. 102).
Acts 2:34. The Mediatorial Throne.
I. Its divine appointment.—“The Lord said unto My Lord.” Jehovah its Author. By His decree was it constituted.
II. Its glorious occupant.—“My Lord.”
1. David’s divine Sovereign.
2. Jehovah’s personal fellow.
III. Its specific object.—Here represented to be the subjugation of all the enemies of that throne—i.e., all the foes of Jesus Christ and His kingdom.
IV. Its long duration.—Till that subjugation is effected. But not for ever. (See 1 Corinthians 15:28.)
Acts 2:22-36. Four Remarkable Things in Peter’s Sermon.
I. The courage that could venture to charge upon an immense miscellaneous street audience the death of God’s Messiah, and this in the most naked terms, and by a man who had himself but a short while before, quailing before a servant maid in the high priest’s palace, denied Him thrice.
II. The tenderness which tempered this awful charge with the announcement of an eternal purpose of God in that very death, so paving the way for holding forth this crucified One as their own now exalted Lord and Christ.
III. The dread harmony with which one and the same event is here presented as on men’s part a crime of unparalleled atrocity, and on the part of God the result of an eternal decree of saving mercy.
IV. The description given of that death itself—by a word signifying travail pangs, as the throes of a death which was to give birth to a new life.—David Brown, D.D.