Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 2:32
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
32. This Jesus hath God raised up ] (i.e. from the dead). The verb here, and the noun translated resurrection in the previous verse, are parts of the same word, and make the statement very forcible in the Greek. David spake of a resurrection, which manifestly was not his own, but here is now come to pass the resurrection of Jesus, of which we all are witnesses. The all is probably to be confined to Peter and the eleven, with whom he is more closely connected in this speech (see Act 2:14) than with the rest.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This Jesus – Peter, having shown that it was predicted that the Messiah would rise, now affirms that such a resurrection occurred in the case of Jesus. If it was a matter of prophecy, all objection to the truth of the doctrine was taken away, and the only question was whether there was evidence that this had been done. The proof of this Peter now alleges, and offers his own testimony, and that of his brethren, to the truth of this great and glorious fact.
We are all witnesses – It seems probable that Peter refers here to the whole 120 who were present, and who were ready to attest it in any manner. The matter which was to be proved was that Jesus was seen alive after he had been put to death. The apostles were appointed to bear witness of this. We are told by Paul 1Co 15:6 that he was seen by more than five hundred brethren, that is, Christians, at one time. The 120 assembled on this occasion were doubtless part of the number, and were ready to attest this. This was the proof that Peter alleged; and the strength of this proof was, and should have been, perfectly irresistible:
- They had seen him themselves. They did not conjecture it or reason about it; but they had the evidence on which people act every day, and which must be regarded as satisfactory the evidence of their own senses.
(2)The number was such they could not be imposed on. If 120 persons could not prove a plain matter of fact, nothing could be established by testimony; there could be no way of arriving at any facts.
(3)The thing to be established was a plain matter. It was not that they saw him rise. That they never pretended: Impostors would have done this. But it was that they saw him, talked, walked, ate, drank with him, being alive, after, he had been crucified. The fact of his death was matter of Jewish record, and no one called it in question. The only fact for Christianity to make out was that he was seen alive afterward, and this was attested by many witnesses.
(4)They had no interest in deceiving the world in this thing. There was no prospect of pleasure, wealth, or honor in doing it.
(5)They offered themselves now as ready to endure any sufferings, or to die, in attestation of the truth of this event.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 32. Whereof we all are witnesses.] That is, the whole 120 saw him after he rose from the dead, and were all ready, in the face of persecution and death, to attest this great truth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This Jesus, whom ye crucified, and we preach,
Whereof we all are witnesses: they had now received the power spoken of and promised Act 1:6, and testify what they had heard, and seen, and felt, and all agree in; though they could get nothing by it, but hatred and persecution, nay, death.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
This Jesus hath God raised up,…. That is, from the dead,
whereof we are all witnesses; namely, of his resurrection, they having seen him, and heard him, and ate, and drank, and conversed with him since his resurrection; and which was true, not of the twelve apostles only, but of the whole company: or “we are all his witnesses”; either of God, who raised Christ from the dead; or of Christ who was raised by him; and indeed, they bore testimony to the whole of this, to Christ, and to his resurrection, and to its being done by God the Father.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This Jesus ( ). Many of the name “Jesus,” but he means the one already called “the Nazarene” (verse 22) and foretold as the Messiah in Ps 16 and raised from the dead by God in proof that he is the Messiah (Acts 2:24; Acts 2:32), “this Jesus whom ye crucified” (verse 36). Other terms used of him in the Acts are the Messiah, verse 31, the one whom God “anointed” (Ac 10:38), as in Joh 1:41, Jesus Christ (9:34). In 2:36 God made this Jesus Messiah, in 3:20 the Messiah Jesus, in 17:3 Jesus is the Messiah, in 18:5 the Messiah is Jesus, in 24:24 Christ Jesus.
Whereof (). Or “of whom.” Either makes sense and both are true. Peter claims the whole 120 as personal witnesses to the fact of the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead and they are all present as Peter calls them to witness on the point. In Galilee over 500 had seen the Risen Christ at one time (1Co 15:6) most of whom were still living when Paul wrote. Thus the direct evidence for the resurrection of Jesus piles up in cumulative force.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Resurrection Is Evidence of Lordship of Jesus V. 32-36
1) “This Jesus hath God raised up,” (touton ton lesoun anestesen he theos) “This Jesus (of whom I speak) God has raised up,” from death and the grave. That God raised Jesus from the dead was a compelling, unimpeding, driving motivational influence in the lives of the early new Testament church people, Act 1:2; Act 2:24; Act 3:15; Act 4:2; Act 10:40.
2) “Whereof we all are witnesses,” (hou pantes hemeis esmen martures) “Of which (one) we are all witnesses,” the “we” of which Peter spoke were those who had been charged with being drunk, when it was but the third hour of the day, Act 2:15. They were witnesses chosen of our Lord, most of whom had companied with Him from the beginning of His ministry, Act 1:20-21, until He was taken up into heaven. They were of such character and reputation that their testimony would have been received in most any reasonable court of equity in any civilized world territory, Joh 15:27; Act 1:8-11; 1Co 15:3-7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
32. This Jesus After that he had proved by the testimony of David, that it was most requisite that Christ should rise again, he saith, that he and the rest of his fellows were such witnesses as saw him with their eyes after his resurrection. For this text (124) will not suffer this word raised up to be drawn into any other sense. Whereupon it followeth that that was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth which David did foreshow concerning Christ. After that he intreateth of the fruit or effect. For it was requisite for him to declare that first, that Christ is alive. Otherwise it had been an absurd and incredible thing that he should be the author of so great a miracle. Notwithstanding he doth therewithal teach us, that he did not rise for his own sake alone, but that he might make the whole Church partaker of his life, having poured out the Spirit.
(124) “ Contextus,” context.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(32) This Jesus hath God raised up . . .From the first the Apostles take up the position which their Lord had assigned them. They are witnesses, and before and above all else, witnesses of the Resurrection.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
32. We The men whose divine authority you have seen demonstrated in this pentecostal miracle.
Witnesses See note on Luk 1:2. Our eyes can testify the accordance of fact with prophecy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“This Jesus did God raise up, of which we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this, which you see and hear.”
Having given his Scriptural proof Peter now applies it powerfully. This Coming King was Jesus, and Him therefore God has raised up, as all His disciples present had witnessed. And having been raised up He has ‘poured forth’ His Holy Spirit. (The Spirit was thought of as ‘poured forth’ because He was thought of by the prophets as like pouring rain). And this present pouring out of the Spirit is proof positive that He has been exalted by God’s powerful right hand (compare Act 2:25). For the coming of the Holy Spirit, with the manifestations that indicated the presence of God, demonstrated that He had received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father and had here and now poured it out on His disciples.
So while his listeners had not themselves had the privilege that His disciples had had, of being witnesses to the resurrection, they had the next best thing, visible and aural evidence of His action in sending forth God’s Spirit with power, which demonstrated His resurrection and present exalted position, as witnessed to by the words spoken by Him in their own tongues through His disciples. Let them see from this then that the reason for the empty tomb, of which they would all have heard, is that Jesus is risen, and that they themselves now have proof of it. The greater David has received what the first David could only wishfully hope for.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
DISCOURSE: 1737
SENDING FORTH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Act 2:32-33. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
MARVELLOUS, beyond conception, was the miracle wrought on the day of Pentecost; when a company of illiterate fishermen were enabled, in one moment, to speak a great diversity of languages, with as much ease and fluency and propriety as their own native tongue. Some, who were of a more than ordinary profane character, when they heard foreigners of different nations addressed in languages which they themselves could not understand, said, that the Apostles were drunk with new wine. But the Apostle Peter, repelling the accusation as both unmerited and absurd, shewed that this very miracle had been foretold, as ordained to mark the days of the Messiah, and as intended to introduce that new dispensation to which the descendants of Abraham had looked forward for two thousand years. That we may see the full scope of his argument, I will shew,
I.
In what light we should view the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit
This stupendous miracle had an especial respect to the Lord Jesus Christ,
1.
As an evidence of his mission
[It had been foretold by the Prophet Joel, whose words are cited by the Apostle Peter, and declared to have been accomplished in that event [Note: Compare Joe 2:28-32. with Act 2:16-21.]. The testimony of the Apostles, relative to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, on which all his claims to the Messiahship were founded, might be supposed to have been the result of a deep-laid plot: but, in the miraculous powers imparted, there could be no conspiracy; since persons of all the different nations then present at Jerusalem could not but attest the truth of the miracle then wrought. Of this the most inveterate enemies were made the judges: and therefore, if they were convinced by it, even three thousand of them in one single hour, we may be sure that the evidence was clear and irresistible. If by his resurrection from the dead, the Lord Jesus was proved to be the Son of God with power, much more was he by his visible ascension to heaven, and his sending forth of the Holy Spirit according to his word.]
2.
As the reward of his sufferings
[The Father had engaged in covenant with the Lord Jesus, that if he would make his soul an offering for sin, he should see a seed who should prolong their days, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands: yea, that he should see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied [Note: Isa 53:10-11.]. And now this promise was fulfilled. By the sending down of the Holy Spirit, the recompence was accorded to him: the great were divided to him for a portion, and the strong for a spoil, because he had poured out his soul unto death, and been numbered with transgressors, and borne the sins of many, and made intercession for transgressors [Note: Isa 53:12.]. It was in the prospect of this that he had endured the cross, and despised the shame, and had sat down at the right hand of the throne of God [Note: Heb 12:2]; it had been declared unto him, that he should receive gifts for men, even for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them: and his being empowered to confer these gifts was, on the Fathers part, a fulfilment of the engagement he had entered into [Note: Compare Psa 68:18. with Eph 4:8; and mark the distinction between received and gave.], and a bestowment of the benefits which he had purchased with his own blood [Note: Act 20:28.].]
3.
As the pledge and earnest of his glory
[The prophets, speaking by the Spirit of Christ, had from the beginning testified respecting the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow [Note: 1Pe 1:10-11.]. Now, this sending forth of the Holy Spirit was the commencement of the Saviours glory, both amongst Jews and Gentiles [Note: Act 11:15.]: and to this had John the Baptist and our Lord himself referred, as the pledge and earnest of his triumphs [Note: Mat 3:11. Act 1:4-5.]. Our blessed Lord, previous to his ascension, had taught his Disciples to expect this: but it was not till the renewal of this miracle to the Gentile converts, six years afterwards, that Peter recollected his words; and then they were brought most forcibly to his remembrance: Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost [Note: Act 11:16.]. In all subsequent effusions of the Holy Spirit has the glory of Christ been advancing, even unto this time [Note: Joh 16:14.]; and by this, at a future period, will his kingdom be extended over the face of the whole earth: when the Spirit will be poured out from on high, the wilderness shall become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest [Note: Isa 32:15.]. The request for that effusion of the Spirit needs only to be made by him; and the heathen shall instantly be given to him for an inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession [Note: Psa 2:8.].]
Nor is this a mere speculative subject. It has a great practical tendency; as will be seen, whilst I shew,
II.
What we may learn from it
Some idea may be formed of the immense importance of this subject, by the mention of two things only, to which I will confine your attention. We may see, then, from hence,
1.
What we ourselves, if we believe in Christ, may expect
[Our blessed Lord, in the days of his flesh, stood in a place of public concourse, and cried, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink; and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe in him should receive [Note: Joh 7:37-39.]. True, in his miraculous powers we are no longer to hope for the Holy Spirits operations: but, as our Teacher, our Comforter, our Sanctifier, we may expect his influences now, no less than in the apostolic age: for the Lord has promised, saying, Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world [Note: Mat 28:20.]. See his discourses just previous to his departure from this world, how full they are of this subject [Note: Joh 14:16-17; Joh 14:26; Joh 15:26; Joh 16:7-13.] And what assurance he has given us that we shall not seek the Spirits influence in vain [Note: Luk 11:13.]. To every one of you, then, I say, Enlarge your expectations, to the full extent of your necessities: for God the Father will save you by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he will shed forth on you abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour [Note: Tit 3:4-6.]. Indeed I must not content myself with saying that this great gift shall be vouchsafed unto you, if you will believe in Christ; for it is the express declaration of Almighty God, that, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his [Note: Rom 8:9.].]
2.
In what respects we may ourselves confirm the testimony here given
[The Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, were witnesses for Christ, not only in a way of oral testimony, but especially in the miraculous powers which they exercised. And though these miraculous powers have ceased, yet are there spiritual influences, by which the agency of the Holy Spirit is no less displayed. What if we saw, in the whole valley of vision, the dead bones resume their former vitality, and rise upon the earth a large army, would that not display the operation of a divine power [Note: Eze 37:1-10.]? Behold, such a witness for the Lord is every soul that is quickened from its death in trespasses and sins [Note: Eph 2:1.]. Not less power is exerted in the recovery of every apostate soul, than in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and his investiture with divine authority over all the principalities and powers both of heaven and hell [Note: Eph 1:19-23.]. Be ye then, my brethren, witnesses for the Lord, by shewing forth the power of his grace [Note: 1Pe 2:9.], and bringing forth in rich abundance the fruits of his Spirit [Note: Gal 5:22-24.]. Especially bear about in you a resemblance to the Lord Jesus Christ, in all his holy tempers and dispositions under his unparalleled afflictions; and then the life of that blessed Saviour will be made manifest in your bodies [Note: 2Co 4:11.]. Be ye planted in the likeness of his death and resurrection; and ye will be witnesses for him, that he is possessed of all power in heaven and in earth, and that in due season every enemy shall be put under his feet.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Ver. 32. Hath God raised up ] Adam died, and we hear no more of him; but the second Adam rose and reigneth for ever.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
32 .] From Act 2:25 has been employed in substantiating the Resurrection as the act of God announced by prophecy in old time: now the historical fact of its accomplishment is affirmed, and the vouchers for it produced.
] either masc., see ch. Act 1:8 ; Act 13:31 , or neut. The former seems most probable as including the latter. ‘We are His witnesses,’ would imply, ‘We testify to this His work,’ which work implied the Resurrection.
, first and most properly the Twelve : but, secondarily, the whole body of believers, all of whom, at this time, had probably seen the Lord since His Resurrection; see 1Co 15:6 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 2:32 . : may be masculine = Christ, cf. Act 13:31 , but is taken as neuter by Blass (so too Overbeck, Holtzmann, Weiss, Wendt, Felten). Bengel remarks “nempe Dei qui id fecit,” and compares Act 5:32 , Act 10:41 , and 1Co 15:15 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Acts
PETER’S FIRST SERMON
Act 2:32 – Act 2:47
This passage may best be dealt with as divided into three parts: the sharp spear-thrust of Peter’s closing words Act 2:32 – Act 2:36, the wounded and healed hearers Act 2:37 – Act 2:41, and the fair morning dawn of the Church Act 2:42 – Act 2:47.
I. Peter’s address begins with pointing out the fulfilment of prophecy in the gift of the Spirit Act 2:14 – Act 2:21.
Observe the significant alternation of the names of ‘Christ’ and ‘Jesus’ in Act 2:31 – Act 2:32 . The former verse establishes that prophecy had foretold the Resurrection of the Messiah, whoever he might be; the latter asserts that ‘this Jesus’ has fulfilled the prophetic conditions. That is not a thing to be argued about, but to be attested by competent witnesses. It was presented to the multitude on Pentecost, as it is to us, as a plain matter of fact, on which the whole fabric of Christianity is built, and which itself securely rests on the concordant testimony of those who knew Him alive, saw Him dead, and were familiar with Him risen.
There is a noble ring of certitude in Peter’s affirmation, and of confidence that the testimony producible was overwhelming. Unless Jesus had risen, there would neither have been a Pentecost nor a Church to receive the gift. The simple fact which Peter alleged in that first sermon, ‘whereof we all are witnesses,’ is still too strong for the deniers of the Resurrection, as their many devices to get over it prove.
But, a listener might ask, what has this witness of yours to do with Joel’s prophecy, or with this speaking with tongues? The answer follows in the last part of the sermon. The risen Jesus has ascended up; that is inseparable from the fact of resurrection, and is part of our testimony. He is ‘exalted by,’ or, perhaps, at, ‘the right hand of God.’ And that exaltation is to us the token that there He has received from the Father the Spirit, whom He promised to send when He left us. Therefore it is He-’this Jesus’-who has ‘poured forth this,’-this new strange gift, the tokens of which you see flaming on each head, and hear bursting in praise from every tongue.
What triumphant emphasis is in that ‘He’! Peter quotes Joel’s word ‘pour forth.’ The prophet had said, as the mouthpiece of God, ‘ I will pour forth’; Peter unhesitatingly transfers the word to Jesus. We must not assume in him at this stage a fully-developed consciousness of our Lord’s divine nature, but neither must we blink the tremendous assumption which he feels warranted in making, that the exaltation of Jesus to the right hand of God meant His exercising the power which belonged to God Himself.
In Act 2:34 , he stays for a moment to establish by prophecy that the Ascension, of which he had for the first time spoken in Act 2:33 , is part of the prophetic characteristics of the Messiah. His demonstration runs parallel with his preceding one as to the Resurrection. He quotes Psa 110:1 – Psa 110:7 , which he had learned to do from his Master, and just as he had argued about the prediction of Resurrection, that the dead Psalmist’s words could not apply to himself, and must therefore apply to the Messiah; so he concludes that it was not ‘David’ who was called by Jehovah to sit as ‘Lord’ on His right hand. If not David, it could only be the Messiah who was thus invested with Lordship, and exalted as participator of the throne of the Most High.
Then comes the final thrust of the spear, for which all the discourse has been preparing. The Apostle rises to the full height of his great commission, and sets the trumpet to his mouth, summoning ‘all the house of Israel,’ priests, rulers, and all the people, to acknowledge his Master. He proclaims his supreme dignity and Messiahship. He is the ‘Lord’ of whom the Psalmist sang, and the prophet declared that whoever called on His name should be saved; and He is the Christ for whom Israel looked.
Last of all, he sets in sharp contrast what God had done with Jesus, and what Israel had done, and the barb of his arrow lies in the last words, ‘whom ye crucified.’ And this bold champion of Jesus, this undaunted arraigner of a nation’s crimes, was the man who, a few weeks before, had quailed before a maid-servant’s saucy tongue! What made the change? Will anything but the Resurrection and Pentecost account for the psychological transformation effected in him and the other Apostles?
II. No wonder that ‘they were pricked in their heart’!
Peter’s answer lays down two conditions: repentance and baptism. The former is often taken in too narrow a sense as meaning sorrow for sin, whereas it means a change of disposition or mind, which will be accompanied, no doubt, with ‘godly sorrow,’ but is in itself deeper than sorrow, and is the turning away of heart and will from past love and practice of evil. The second, baptism, is ‘in the name of Jesus Christ,’ or more accurately, ‘ upon the name,’-that is, on the ground of the revealed character of Jesus. That necessarily implies faith in that Name; for, without such faith, the baptism would not be on the ground of the Name. The two things are regarded as inseparable, being the inside and the outside of the Christian discipleship. Repentance, faith, baptism, these three, are called for by Peter.
But ‘remission of sins’ is not attached to the immediately preceding clause, so as that baptism is said to secure remission, but to the whole of what goes before in the sentence. Obedience to the requirements would bring the same gift to the obedient as the disciples had received; for it would make them disciples also. But, while repentance and baptism which presupposed faith were the normal, precedent conditions of the Spirit’s bestowal, the case of Cornelius, where the Spirit was given before baptism, forbids the attempt to link the rite and the divine gift more closely together.
The Apostle was eager to share the gift. The more we have of the Spirit, the more shall we desire that others may have Him, and the more sure shall we be that He is meant for all. So Peter went on to base his assurance, that his hearers might all possess the Spirit, on the universal destination of the promise. Joel had said, ‘on all flesh’; Peter declares that word to point downwards through all generations, and outwards to all nations. How swiftly had he grown in grasp of the sweep of Christ’s work! How far beneath that moment of illumination some of his subsequent actions fell!
We have only a summary of his exhortations, the gist of which was earnest warning to separate from the fate of the nation by separating in will and mind from its sins. Swift conviction followed the Spiri-given words, as it ever will do when the speaker is filled with the Holy Spirit, and has therefore a tongue of fire. Three thousand new disciples were made that day, and though there must have been many superficial adherents, and none with much knowledge, it is perhaps not fanciful to see in Luke’s speaking of them as ‘souls’ a hint that, in general, the acceptance of Jesus as Messiah was deep and real. Not only were three thousand ‘names’ added to the hundred and twenty, but three thousand souls.
III. The fair picture of the morning brightness, so soon overclouded, so long lost, follows.
A wider view of the state of the community as a whole closes the chapter. It is the first of several landing-places, as it were, on which Luke pauses to sum up an epoch. A reverent awe laid hold of the popular mind, which was increased by the miraculous powers of the Apostles. The Church will produce that impression on the world in proportion as it is manifestly filled with the Spirit. Do we? The s-called community of goods was not imposed by commandment, as is plain from Peter’s recognition of Ananias’ right to do as he chose with his property. The facts that Mark’s mother, Mary, had a house of her own, and that Barnabas, her relative, is specially signalised as having sold his property, prove that it was not universal. It was an irrepressible outcrop of the brotherly feeling that filled all hearts. Christ has not come to lay down laws, but to give impulses. Compelled communism is not the repetition of that oneness of sympathy which effloresced in the bright flower of this common possession of individual goods. But neither is the closed purse, closed because the heart is shut, which puts to shame so much profession of brotherhood, justified because the liberality of the primitive disciples was not by constraint nor of obligation, but willing and spontaneous.
Act 2:46 – Act 2:47 add an outline of the beautiful daily life of the community, which was, like their liberality, the outcome of the feeling of brotherhood, intensified by the sense of the gulf between them and the crooked generation from which they had separated themselves. Luke shows it on two sides. Though they had separated from the nation, they clung to the Temple services, as they continued to do till the end. They had not come to clear consciousness of all that was involved in their discipleship, It was not God’s will that the new spirit should violently break with the old letter. Convulsions are not His way, except as second-best. The disciples had to stay within the fold of Israel, if they were to influence Israel. The time of outward parting between the Temple and the Church was far ahead yet.
But the truest life of the infant Church was not nourished in the Temple, but in the privacy of their homes. They were one family, and lived as such. Their ‘breaking bread at home’ includes both their ordinary meals and the Lord’s Supper; for in these first days every meal, at least the evening meal of every day, was hallowed by having the Supper as a part of it. Each meal was thus a religious act, a token of brotherhood, and accompanied with praise. Surely then ‘men did eat angels’ food,’ and on platter and cup was written ‘Holiness to the Lord.’ The ideal of human fellowship was realised, though but for a moment, and on a small scale. It was inevitable that divergences should arise, but it was not inevitable that the Church should depart so far from the brief brightness of its dawn. Still the sweet concordant brotherhood of these morning hours witnesses what Christian love can do, and prophesies what shall yet be and shall not pass.
No wonder that such a Church won favour with all the people! We hear nothing of its evangelising activity, but its life was such that, without recorded speech, multitudes were drawn into so sweet a fellowship. If we were like the Pentecostal Christians, we should attract wearied souls out of the world’s Babel into the calm home where love and brotherhood reigned, and God would ‘add’ to us ‘day by day those that were being saved.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
hath. Omit.
whereof = of which.
all. i.e. the twelve.
witnesses. See note on Act 1:8.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
32.] From Act 2:25 has been employed in substantiating the Resurrection as the act of God announced by prophecy in old time: now the historical fact of its accomplishment is affirmed, and the vouchers for it produced.
] either masc., see ch. Act 1:8; Act 13:31,-or neut. The former seems most probable as including the latter. We are His witnesses, would imply, We testify to this His work, which work implied the Resurrection.
, first and most properly the Twelve: but, secondarily, the whole body of believers, all of whom, at this time, had probably seen the Lord since His Resurrection; see 1Co 15:6.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 2:32. , this Jesus) Act 2:23; Act 2:36, , Him, this same Jesus.-, hath raised up) from the dead.-, of Whom [but Engl. Vers. whereof]) namely, of GOD, who effected it: ch. Act 5:32, We are His witnesses of these things; Act 10:41, God showed Him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even unto us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead: 1Co 15:15.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
6. “BOTH LORD AND CHRIST”
Act 2:32-36
The subject before us in these verses is the exaltation and glory of Jesus Christ as Lord. This was the issue Peter pressed upon his hearers on the day of Pentecost. He did not ask them to lift their hands, walk down the aisle, come to the altar, or say the sinner’s prayer. The cheap tricks of easy-believism had not yet been invented. Peter demanded as God’s ambassador that those who heard him bow to, trust, and acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord.
Peter shows us in this part of his sermon that the singular purpose for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was to announce the exaltation of Christ as Lord. The outpouring of the Spirit was not in any way a change in God’s plan. It did not alter God’s method of grace in salvation. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit was not the beginning of “the church age”, or a new “dispensational age”. This mighty outpouring announced the exaltation of Christ. The exaltation and glory of Christ as Lord over all things is the theme of all gospel preaching, the acknowledgement of all true faith, and the ground of the believer’s hope.
We must understand this – The one issue between God and man is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. God demands that all men bow to and acknowledge the rightful dominion of his Son over all things. All men will bow to Christ, either in this life in repentance and faith, or in the day of judgment, but all will bow to Christ (Php 2:9-11).
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF OUR SAVIOR’S EXALTATION? Peter tells us that Christ is indeed exalted. The baby of Bethlehem is now the King of glory. The man we nailed to the cursed tree now sits upon the throne of universal dominion. The King of glory has come into his kingdom and taken possession of his throne (Psa 24:7-10). What does that mean? What is the significance of Christ’s exaltation?
First, Christ upon the throne means that his work is finished and complete (Heb 1:1-3; Heb 10:10-14). Our great High Priest is pictured as a Priest seated in the holy of holies, in heaven itself. In the Old Testament there was no chair in the holy place. Those priests could never sit down, because their work was never finished. Their sacrifices could never take away sin (Heb 10:1-4). But our High Priest is seated in heaven, in a posture of rest, because his work is finished! All that was agreed upon in the covenant of grace he has done (Joh 17:4). He came to do his Father’s will, and he has done it completely. He brought in, by his obedience in life, perfect righteousness for God’s elect. By his death he satisfied all the demands of God’s law and justice as our Substitute (Isa 59:16; Isa 63:1-5; Joh 19:30).
Second, Christ’s exaltation upon the throne of glory means that God the Father has accepted the sacrifice of his Son for the salvation of his people (Rom 8:34). The believer’s assurance that sin is pardoned is the ascension and exaltation of Christ. If Christ who was made to be sin for us is now exalted with everlasting glory upon the throne of God, then our sins that were imputed to him are gone forever! His blood has indeed put away our sins!
Third, the exaltation of Christ proclaims reconciliation between God and man (Col 1:18-22). There is a man in glory whose righteousness has been accepted, whose death has satisfied the very justice of God. The debt for sin has been fully paid. Godhood and manhood are in perfect harmony in Christ, the God-man. Therefore, there is hope for men.
Fourth, the exalted Christ is able to save fallen men (Heb 7:25). Christ on the throne is able to save all who come to God by him. Christ on the throne is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Christ on the throne is able to keep you from falling and to present you holy, unblamable, and unreprovable before the presence of his glory!
WHAT IS THE EXALTED SON OF GOD DOING IN HEAVEN? He is enjoying the honor and dignity he won as our Mediator. In his divinity, as God, our Savior has always enjoyed the bliss and glory of total sovereignty. Though he humbled himself as a man, even unto the death of the cross, he never ceased to be God over all! But as a man the Lord Jesus Christ earned the right to rule the entire universe (Rom 14:9; Php 2:9-11). He enjoys the highest honor that heaven affords. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. And his honor is well deserved honor (Rev 5:9-10).
The exalted Christ is ruling this world in total sovereignty (Joh 17:1-4; 1Pe 3:22). He is the only Potentate (1Ti 6:15). He rules all things according to the eternal purpose and pleasure of God for the salvation and eternal, spiritual good of God’s elect. And he rules all things well (Rom 8:28).
Christ, exalted in heaven, is making intercession for chosen sinners according to the will of God (Heb 7:25; 1Jn 2:1-2). On the basis of his perfect righteousness and blood atonement, he pleads with the Father for the salvation of his redeemed ones, the non-imputation of sin to them, and their presence with him in glory at last (Joh 17:24), and he always prevails!
The exaltation of Christ is a representative exaltation. That is to say, he was exalted as the representative of God’s elect and we are already exalted with him (Eph 2:5-6). So certain is the salvation of God’s elect, so certain it is that Christ’s redeemed ones shall possess the glory of an eternal inheritance in heaven, that we are already possessors of it in Christ!
WHAT HAS THE EXALTED REDEEMER BEEN PROMISED? When he was exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high, God the Father promised his Son that he would make all his foes his footstool (Heb 1:5; Heb 1:8-13). It is virtually done now and it shall be carried out in all the universe. As he promised to make all Christ’s enemies his footstool, the Father also promised the Son that he would save all his ransomed people (Isa 53:10-12; Heb 2:13). As I said before, all men and women will bow to Christ. You will either bow to him in faith, surrendering to his rule now, or you will bow to him in fear and trembling, acknowledging his sovereign justice in the day of judgment, but bow to him you shall (Isa 45:23-25).
“WHAT SHALL WE DO?” (Act 2:37). The people who heard Peter’s message had sense enough to realize that there is only one way to deal with an absolute sovereign. We must bow to his claims, acknowledging his lordship over all things (Rom 10:9-10; 1Co 12:3). True faith involves surrender to the rule and dominion of Christ as a willing servant to him (Luk 14:25-33). Where there is no surrender there is no faith!
Let every believer rejoice. Christ is exalted. Christ is Lord. That means – All is well! Let us trust him in all things, rejoice in him in all circumstances, walk before him in submissive faith, and wait for him with hope and expectation (1Jn 3:2).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
whereof: Act 2:24, Act 1:8, Act 1:22, Act 3:15, Act 4:33, Act 5:31, Act 5:32, Act 10:39-41, Luk 24:46-48, Joh 15:27, Joh 20:26-31
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:20 – delighted Psa 16:5 – thou Psa 71:20 – quicken Psa 109:27 – General Psa 118:16 – right hand Psa 118:23 – the Lord’s doing Mar 12:11 – General Luk 24:48 – General Joh 2:19 – I will Joh 10:18 – but Joh 15:26 – he Joh 16:10 – righteousness Joh 16:14 – glorify Act 4:20 – we cannot Act 5:30 – ye slew Act 13:23 – raised Act 13:30 – General Act 13:31 – who Act 17:31 – in that Act 25:19 – which Rom 1:4 – the Son Rom 8:11 – him 1Co 14:22 – for a 1Co 15:4 – he rose 1Co 15:15 – we have 2Co 3:8 – the ministration Phi 2:9 – God Col 2:15 – triumphing 1Ti 3:16 – justified Heb 2:4 – God Heb 13:20 – brought 1Pe 1:21 – that raised 1Pe 5:1 – and a 1Jo 1:2 – and bear Rev 11:3 – witnesses
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
We means the apostles who had seen Jesus after his resurrection.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 2:32. This Jesus hath God raised up. Looking back to Act 2:24, this Jesuswhom you all knew about so wellas Davids descendant has fulfilled all the varied details of this marvellous prophecy; for as you know He was dead, He is risen again.
Whereof we are all witnesses. No doubt here pointing to the hundred and twenty on whom the gift of the Spirit had fallen, who, to the astonishment of the crowds, had been speaking in the many tongues, and who all had seen the Lord after the resurrection.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Act 2:32-36. This Jesus Whom we assert to be the true Messiah; hath God raised up According to the tenor of his promise; whereof Of which resurrection; we all are witnesses On our personal and certain knowledge; having seen him with our eyes, and examined into the truth of the matter with all possible care. Therefore, being by the right hand of God That is, by Gods almighty power, exalted from the grave to heaven; or, as some read the clause, Being exalted to the right hand of God, to supreme power, majesty, and glory; and having received of the Father As the great anointed one of the Lord; the promise of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost promised to his disciples; he hath Agreeably to the notices he gave us before his ascension; shed forth this miraculous effusion of it, the effects of which ye now see and hear. For David himself Who has not yet been raised from the dead; is not With respect to his body; ascended into heaven To be advanced there to the highest dignity and power: but he saith In another Psalm, (where he plainly shows that he spoke of another person, and such another as was superior to himself, even his Lord;) The Lord Namely, Jehovah, (the word here used;) said unto my Lord That is, God the Father said unto the Messiah, (whom, though in one sense Davids son, he honoured as his Lord;) Sit thou on my right hand Be thou invested with the highest power and glory; until I make thy foes All that are so presumptuous as to persist in hostility to thee; thy footstool Until I lay them prostrate at thy feet, so that thou mayest trample upon them at pleasure, as entirely subdued. See note on Psa 110:1. This text is here quoted with the greatest address, as suggesting, in the words of David, their great prophetic monarch, how certain their own ruin must be, if they went on to oppose Christ. It may be proper to observe here, that in these two verses there is an allusion to two ancient customs: one, to that of kings placing those persons on their right hands to whom they intended the highest honour; as Solomon did Bathsheba, when sitting on his throne, 1Ki 2:19; and the other, to the custom of conquerors, who used to tread on the necks of their vanquished enemies, as a token of their entire victory and triumph over them. Therefore Upon the whole, from this concurrent evidence, both of prophecy and miracle, and from the testimony God has given to that Jesus whom we preach, not only by his resurrection from the dead, but by the effusion of the Holy Spirit on his followers; let all the house of Israel know assuredly How contrary soever it may be to their former apprehensions and rooted prejudices; that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have rejected and crucified, both Lord and Christ Hath demonstrated him to be the expected Messiah, and hath constituted him the King of his people, and Lord of all: let them know certainly that this truth has now received its full confirmation, and we our full commission to publish it. Thus Peter shows, in a striking light, what aggravated wickedness they had been guilty of, in that they had crucified one whom God designed to glorify, and had put him to death as a deceiver, who had given such pregnant proofs of a divine mission.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
32, 33. Thus far in his argument, the speaker has proved that the Messiah must rise from the dead to ascend his throne; but he has yet to prove that Jesus was thus raised, and was, therefore, the Messiah of whom David had spoken. He proves the resurrection by the testimony of himself and the eleven other witnesses standing with him: (32) “This Jesus has God raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” Here the twelve unimpeached witnesses testifying to a sensible fact, and presenting their testimony with all the authority belonging to miraculously attested messengers from God. This was sufficient, as to the resurrection. But it must also be proved that after he arose he ascended to heaven and sat down upon his throne. It would be unavailing, for this purpose, to urge the fact that the twelve had seen him ascend; for their eyes had followed him no further than the cloud which received him out of sight. But he presents, in proof, this immersion in the Holy Spirit, which the multitude were witnessing, and which could be effected by no one beneath the throne of God. (33) “Therefore, being to the right hand of God exalted, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has shed forth this which you now see and hear.” What they then saw and heard was both the proof that he who sent it down had ascended the throne of heaven, and the assurance that Peter spoke by divine authority in declaring this fact.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
2:32 {7} This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
(7) Peter witnesses that Jesus Christ is the appointed everlasting King, which he manifestly proves by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of David.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Peter equated Jesus with the Christ (Messiah, Act 2:31). He also attributed Jesus’ resurrection to God again (cf. Act 2:24). The resurrection of Jesus Christ was one of the apostles’ strongest emphases (cf. Act 3:15; Act 3:26; Act 4:10; Act 5:30; Act 10:40; Act 13:30; Act 13:33-34; Act 13:37; Act 17:31; Act 26:23). They proceeded to bear witness to what they had seen and heard as Christ had commanded and foretold (Act 1:8).