Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 2:36
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
36. let all the house of Israel know ] Of course such an appeal can only be made to Israel, for they only had known the prophecies, and received the promises.
that God hath made, &c.] The Greek has more force than the A. V. gives. Render, God hath made him both Lord and Christ, even this Jesus whom ye crucified. This is the close of the reasoning. Jesus, who had been crucified, God has raised from the grave, God has exalted to heaven and set Him on His own right hand, and thus shewn that He is the Lord and the Anointed One.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore let all … – Convinced by the prophecies, by our testimony, and by the remarkable scenes exhibited on the day of Pentecost, let all be convinced that the true Messiah has come and has been exalted to heaven.
House of Israel – The word house often means family: let all the family of Israel, that is, all the nation of the Jews, know this.
Know assuredly – Be assured, or know without any hesitation or possibility of mistake. This is the sum of his argument or his discourse. He had established the points which he purposed to prove, and he now applies it to his hearers.
God hath made – God hath appointed or constituted. See Act 5:31.
That same Jesus – The very person who had suffered. He was raised with the same body, and had the same soul; he was the same being, as distinguished from all others. So Christians, in the resurrection, will be the same beings that they were before they died.
Whom ye have crucified – See Act 2:23. There was nothing better suited to show them the guilt of having done this than the argument which Peter used. He showed them that God had sent him as the Messiah, and that he had showed his love for him in raising him from the dead. The Son of God, and the hope of their nation, they had put to death. He was not an impostor, nor a man sowing sedition, nor a blasphemer, but the Messiah of God; and they had imbrued their hands in his blood. There is nothing better suited to make sinners fear and tremble than to show them that, in rejecting Christ, they have rejected God; in refusing to serve him they have refused to serve God. The crime of sinners has a double malignity, as committed against a kind and lovely Saviour, and against the God who loved him, and appointed him to save people. Compare Act 3:14-15.
Both Lord – The word lord properly denotes proprietor, master, or sovereign. Here it means clearly that God had exalted him to be the king so long expected; and that he had given him dominion in the heavens, or, as we should say, made him ruler of all things. The extent of this dominion may be seen in Joh 17:2; Eph 1:21, etc. In the exercise of this orifice, he now rules in heaven and on earth, and will yet come to judge the world. This truth was particularly suited to excite their fear. They had murdered their sovereign, now shown to be raised from the dead, and entrusted with infinite power. They had reason, therefore, to fear that he would come forth in vengeance, and punish them for their crimes. Sinners, in opposing the Saviour, are at war with their living and mighty sovereign and Lord. He has all power, and it is not safe to contend against the judge of the living and the dead.
And Christ – Messiah. They had thus crucified the hope of their nation; imbrued their hands in the blood of him to whom the prophets had looked; and put to death that Holy One, the prospect of whose coming had sustained the most holy men of the world in affliction, and cheered them when they looked on to future years. He who was the hope of their fathers had come, and they had put him to death; and it is no wonder that the consciousness of this – that a sense of guilt, and shame, and confusion should overwhelm their minds, and lead them to ask, in deep distress, what they should do.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 36. Both Lord and Christ.] Not only the Messiah, but the supreme Governor of all things and all persons, Jews and Gentiles, angels and men. In the preceding discourse, Peter assumes a fact which none would attempt to deny, viz. that Jesus had been lately crucified by them. He then,
1. Proves his resurrection.
2. His ascension.
3. His exaltation to the right hand of God.
4. The effusion of the Holy Spirit, which was the fruit of his glorification, and which had not only been promised by himself, but foretold by their own prophets: in consequence of which,
5. It was indisputably proved that this same Jesus, whom they had crucified, was the promised Messiah; and if so,
6. The Governor of the universe, from whose power and justice they had every thing to dread, as they refused to receive his proffered mercy and kindness.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is the conclusion which the apostle infers from the premises, applying what he had said very close and home, or it would not in all likelihood have had so good an effect.
Ye have crucified; ye are the men.
Lord over all the creatures, beyond what the first Adam was; and Christ, King over all the people of God, to rule in them, and reign for them; for to this purpose he was the Christ, or the Anointed of God, declared by God to be so, and owned for such by all that believed in him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
36. Thereforethat is, to sumup all.
let all the house ofIsraelfor in this first discourse the appeal is formally madeto the whole house of Israel, as the then existing Kingdom of God.
know assuredlybyindisputable facts, fulfilled predictions, and the seal of the HolyGhost set upon all.
that God hath madeforPeter’s object was to show them that, instead of interfering with thearrangements of the God of Israel, these events were His own highmovements.
this same Jesus, whom ye havecrucified“The sting is at the close” [BENGEL].To prove to them merely that Jesus was the Messiah might have leftthem all unchanged in heart. But to convince them that He whom theyhad crucified had been by the right hand of God exalted, andconstituted the “LORD”whom David in spirit adored, to whom every knee shall bow, and theCHRIST of God, was tobring them to “look on Him whom they had pierced and mourn forHim.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,…. “With certain knowledge”, as the Arabic version renders it; with full assurance of it: this is a case that is plain and clear, a matter of fact that may be depended on; which all the people of Israel, called “the house of Israel”, a phrase frequently used of that people in the Old Testament, which every individual of that body of men might be assured of:
that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ; that is, that God the Father had not only constituted and appointed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, the Lord of lords, and King of kings, and had invested him with that office, power, and authority, but he had made him manifest to be so by the Holy Spirit which he had received, and now poured forth the same, and not another; even him whom they had rejected with so much contempt; whom they had treated in such a scornful and brutish manner; had spit upon, buffeted, and scourged, and at last crucified; and yet, now, even he had all power in heaven, and in earth, given him, and was exalted above every name; that in his name every knee should bow. The phrase of “making a Messiah”, or “Christ”, is used in the Talmudic writings f.
“The holy blessed God sought to make Hezekiah the Messiah, or Christ, and Sennacherib Gog and Magog; the property or attribute of justice said before the holy blessed God, Lord of the world, and what was David, the king of Israel, who said so many songs and hymns before thee, and thou didst not make him Christ? Hezekiah, for whom thou hast done all these wonders, and he hath not said a song before thee, wilt thou make him the Messiah, or Christ? wherefore his mouth was shut up; and the earth opened, and said a song before him; Lord of the world, I have said a song before thee, for this righteous one, , and he made him Messiah, or Christ.”
f T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Assuredly [] . From aj, not, and sfallw, to cause to fall. Hence, firmly, steadfastly.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly,” (asphalos oun ginosketo pas ockos Israel) “Therefore let all the house of Israel know or recognize for certain (assuredly); This is (exists as) the logical and scriptural conclusion to which all Israel is called to recognize as factual truth that they must face, as expressed by Paul and by Peter, Act 17:31; Act 10:36; Act 10:42.
2) “That God had made that same Jesus,” (hoti ho theos epoiesen touton ton lesoun) “That God has made (to be), caused to be, this Jesus,” the resurrected and living Jesus at His own right hand, the Lord and Savior, the coming king, Act 5:31-32.
3) “Whom ye have crucified,” (hon humeisestaurpsate) “Whom you all (of Israel) crucified,” nailed to the cross, put to death at Calvary. While Roman soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross, it was Israel (the Jews) who condemned Him to death, killed Him, Act 2:22-23; Act 12:15; Act 5:30-32; Act 7:52. It was the Jews or “house of Israel ye” who killed Jesus.
4) “Both Lord and Christ,”(kai kurion auton kai Christon) “Himself both Lord and Christ,” this very, or same Jesus to be both Lord and Christ, in exaltation, Php_2:9-11; Joh 3:35.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
36. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know The house of Israel did confess that that Christ should come which was promised; yet did they not know Who it was. Therefore, Peter concludeth, that Jesus: whom they had so spitefully handled, yea, whose name they did so greatly detest: is he whom they ought to acknowledge to be their Lord, and whom they ought to reverence. For, (saith he,) God hath made him Lord and Christ; that is, you must look for none other than him whom God hath made and given. Furthermore, he saith, That he was made, because God the Father gave him this honor. He joineth the title Lord with the word Christ, because it was a common thing among the Jews, that the Redeemer should be anointed upon this condition, that he might be the Head of the Church, and that the chiefest power over all things might be given him. He speaketh unto the whole house of Israel; as if he should say, Whosoever will be reckoned among the sons of Jacob, and do also look for the promise, let them know for a surety, that this is he and none other. He useth the word house, because God had separated that name and family from all other people. And he saith ασφαλως, or for a surety, not only that they may repose their sure confidence and trust in Christ, but that he may take away all occasion of doubting from those which do oftentimes willingly doubt even of matters which are certain and sure. In the end of his oration he upbraideth unto them again, that they did crucify him, that being touched with greater grief of conscience, they may desire remedy.
And now, forasmuch as they know that Jesus is the Anointed of the Lord, the governor of the Church, and the giver of the Holy Ghost, the accusation hath so much the more force. For the putting of him to death was not only full of cruelty and wickedness, but also a testimony of outrageous disloyalty against God, of sacrilege and unthankfulness, and, finally, of apostasy. But it was requisite that they should be so wounded, lest they should have been slow to seek for medicine. And yet, notwithstanding, they did not crucify him with their own hands; but this is more than sufficient to make them guilty, in that they desired to have him put to death. And we also are accused by this same voice, if we crucify him in ourselves, being already glorified in heaven, making a mock of him, as saith the Apostle, (Heb 6:6.)
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(36) That same Jesus. . . .Better, this Jesus.
Both Lord and Christ.Some MSS. omit both. The word Lord is used with special reference to the prophetic utterance of the Psalm thus cited. There is a rhetorical force in the very order of the words which the English can scarcely give: that both Lord and Christ hath God made this Jesus whom ye crucified. The pronoun of the last verb is emphatic, as pointing the contrast between the way in which the Jews of Jerusalem had dealt with Jesus and the recognition which he had received from the Father. The utterance of the word crucified at the close, pressing home the guilt of the people on their consciences, may be thought of as, in a special manner, working the result described in the next verse.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
36. Therefore And now comes the inference in conclusion. The crucified and ascended Jesus, from whom this Pentecostal effusion has come, is Lord and Messiah; and well it is that the house of Israel should note the assured fact.
Whom ye have crucified Your crucified victim is your triumphant Lord.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Peter then brings them to his final conclusion. All the house of Israel, (all those who claimed descent from Jacob), should therefore recognise from a combination of these Scriptures and what has happened here that God has made Jesus, this Jesus Whom they had crucified, both Lord and Christ (Messiah). The crucified Jesus is also He Who has been raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand as His anointed King, and as the Lord of glory, and has sent the Holy Spirit to carry forward His work of restoring and revivifying Israel.
As ‘Messiah’ (Christ) Jesus is the fulfilment of all the hopes of Judaism, and of mankind. He is the Man Who on behalf of men has received kingship and glory and power (Dan 7:13-14; Mat 28:18). All that is to be ours is ours in Him. In Him we have died, because He died. In Him we have been raised, because He was raised. In Him we are seated on the throne, because He is on the throne. We are even now seated with Him in heavenly places, in the spiritual realm, in Christ (Eph 2:6) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, His freely offered unmerited favour, in His kindness to us through Him (Eph 2:7).
As ‘Lord’ He is ‘my Lord and my God’ to all (Joh 20:28). He is the One Who came from God and returned to God. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things (Hebrews 1-3; Col 1:16) . He is the One Who enjoyed the glory of God with His Father before the world was (Joh 17:5). From having emptied Himself for us He has been restored to the fullness of His Godhood.
‘He has made –.’ This does not mean that He became Lord and Messiah at this point in time. It means that what He already was, was, at this point in time, finally established through His having achieved all that God wanted to achieve. He was already Lord and Messiah, but up to this point in time there had been things which had to be accomplished in order to make that Lordship and Messiahship fully effective. Now they had been fulfilled, and now He was established by God as Lord and Messiah, as the full achiever of all God’s purposes and will, as the Creator and Saviour of the world. All He had come to do had been accomplished. He could say, ‘It is finished’.
‘All the house of Israel.’ An expression only used here in the New Testament but common enough among the Jews for it is contained in a number of synagogue prayers, and occurs over twenty times in the Old Testament (interestingly in Eze 37:11 the dry bones are ‘all the house of Israel’).
The Truth About Jesus of Nazareth and of What He Has Done For Us..
Having looked verse by verse at Peter’s words about Jesus, we will now try to put together the whole. For the picture Peter has built up is a quite remarkable one . We see how step by step Jesus was born, grew up, died, was buried. was raised again and is now highly exalted, with all authority in heaven and earth having been given to Him..
‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Here we are firmly introduced to the man, the son of Joseph and Mary, the brother of James and his other brothers and sisters, the man among men, who for thirty years lived and walked, mainly in Nazareth, first as a growing child and then as a respected self-employed carpenter. He was made man.
‘A man approved of God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs.’ And as man this Jesus of Nazareth was then evidenced to be a mighty man of God by the performance of works, wonders and signs. He was revealed as true and good, as compassionate and caring, righteous in all His works. He was revealed as an outstanding prophet among men, a man who did good things, a man of compassion and power who brought relief and hope and restoration to those who had lost all hope, and a man who through God’s power cast out evil spirits, healed the sick, raised the dead, controlled nature, revealing Who He was through the ‘wonders and signs’ that he did.
‘Which God did by Him in the midst of you.’ He was revealed as the mighty instrument by which God exerted His power in the world in the midst of His people. He was not here of His own will, or to do His own will. He was here at the will of the Godhead.
‘Him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.’ The next stage was His crucifixion. But Peter could not mention that without revealing the secret that lay behind it. And that was that this great and powerful and good God-endued man was ‘delivered up’ to suffering and death as a result of God’s predetermined wisdom and counsel. God knew what must be done and He did it. Man must not think that he had interfered with what God was doing. What had happened was no accident or work of man. It was in accordance with God’s knowing by experience even before it happened and purposing beforehand. For God’s foreknowledge is not merely His pre-knowing, it is His pre-experiencing, His pre-purposing. It is an entering into something beforehand in order to do and bring about His own will. And it had been His purpose that He should be delivered up for us.
‘You by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay.’ But men broke in on God’s purposes. They revealed what they were. Although they did not realise it, their own evil intentions and behaviour were actually a part of what God was doing, while exposing their own essential nature. But that did not make it excusable or reduce the crime. Far from it. They chose to do it, and all they did was with evil intent and exposed the awful truth about them. They called on evil allies and deliberately and callously crucified and slew the One Whom God had sent, the man of Nazareth, the one Who went about doing good, the worker of miracles and wonders, the chosen of God. And having crucified Him they mocked Him there. There was nothing that they would not do to reveal their vindictiveness and hatred. Yet behind it all amazingly God was in control.
‘Whom God raised up having loosed the pangs of death.’ Despatched in cruel suffering into the empty hopelessness of a darkened grave, crushed by the pangs of death, all was not over, indeed it could not be. For He was the Holy One. The Light broke in on the shades (Isa 26:19), and God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, and giving Him triumph over man’s great enemy Death (1Co 15:54), and over all the forces of evil who wanted to ensure that Death reigned for ever (Col 2:15). He raised Him in triumph from the grave, giving Him the victory over death and the grave.
‘Because it was not possible that He should be held by it.’ But now comes the even greater secret. Death could not keep its prey, the grave could not hold Him, not only because God was with Him, but because He Himself is the One Who has life in Himself (Joh 5:26). He Himself had the power to lay down His own life and take it again (Joh 10:18). Thus it was not possible for death and the grave to hold Him captive. He was more than a man. He was the Holy One, the Source and Controller of Life, the One Who had all life in His hands.
‘This Jesus did God raise up of which we all are witnesses.’ The double repetition of His resurrection emphasises the centrality of the resurrection. God raised Him up and His resurrection was made clear in the eyes of witnesses who saw Him, who touched Him, and who ate with Him in His resurrection body (1Jn 1:1-4).
‘Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted.’ Having raised Him from the dead God exalted Him by His own right hand. All the fullness of the power of the ‘right hand’ of Almighty God was active in His exaltation. It was the ‘arm of the Lord’ as never seen before. He was raised up far above all powers in heaven and earth (Eph 1:20-22), and seated on the throne. But which throne did he receive? It was His Father’s throne (Rev 3:21). He enjoyed again with His Father the full dignity of Godhead. He was crowned as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:11-16), and given a name above very name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess Him as LORD (Php 2:9-11). And that name above every Name was LORD, the holy Name of Yahweh. For He Himself is not just resurrected man He is the Mighty God (Isa 9:6).
As a result of this, ‘having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you now see and hear.’ And the result of all this work of the Father and of His Son Jesus Christ on our behalf, was that He received from His Father the promised Holy Spirit of God and poured Him forth on His people so that they are now indwelt by Him, sustained by Him, ‘watered’ by Him, and completely within His power so that He might work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Php 2:13). What is Pentecost? It is the pouring out on us like life-giving rain of all that is contained in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and exaltation. All that He wrought and did is given to us through His Holy Spirit. That is the significance of Pentecost. It signifies that we are indwelt by our living and glorified Saviour, and that all His power in heaven and on earth is at our disposal in order that we might do His will and win the world for Christ.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 2:36 . The Christological aim of the whole discourse, which, as undoubtedly proved after what has been hitherto said ( ), is emphatically at the close set down for recognition as the summary of the faith now requisite. In this case ( unchangeably ) is marked with strong emphasis.
.] without the article, because . . has assumed the nature of a proper name. Comp. LXX. 1Ki 12:23 ; Eze 45:6 , al. Winer, p. 105 [E. T. 137]. The. whole people is regarded as the family of their ancestor Israel ( ).
. ] him Lord (ruler generally, comp. Act 10:36 ) as well as also Messiah. The former general expression, according to which He is , Rom 9:5 , and , Eph 1:22 , the latter special, according to which He is the , v. 31, Joh 4:42 , and , Eph 1:22 , Col 1:18 , together characterize the Messianic possessor of the kingdom, which God has made Christ to be by His exaltation, seeing that He had in His state of humiliation emptied Himself of the power and glory, and was only reinstated into them by His exaltation. Previously He was indeed likewise Lord and Messiah, but in the form of a servant; and it was after laying aside that form that He became such in complete reality. [135] It is not to be inferred from such passages as this and Act 4:27 ; Act 10:38 ; Act 17:31 (de Wette), that the Book of Acts represents the Messianic dignity of Jesus as an acquisition in time ; against which view even in our passage (Act 2:33 ), compared with the confession in Mat 16:16 , Joh 16:30 , is decisive, to say nothing of the Pauline training of Luke himself. Comp. also Act 2:34 .
is not superfluous, but is a weighty epexegesis, which is purposely chosen in order to annex the strongly contrasting (comp. Act 3:13 , Act 7:52 ), and thus to impart to the whole address a deeply impressive conclusion. “Aculeus in fine,” Bengel.
[135] Comp. Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 134 f.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1738
JESUS IS THE CHRIST
Act 2:36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
WHEN we consider the advantages possessed by the Apostles, we are astonished to find how slow of heart they were to receive and understand the great mystery of the Gospel salvation. Not only before the death of their Lord, but after his resurrection, yea, and after all his appearances to them, and the fresh instructions given them during the space of forty days, they could not divest themselves of the idea of a temporal kingdom. Not an hour before his ascension to heaven, they asked him, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? But from the day of Pentecost there was no more of doubt upon their minds respecting any fundamental point of our religion. For some years indeed they retained their prejudices about the Gentiles, not conceiving that they were to be admitted to a full participation of the blessings of the Gospel: but, respecting Christ, and his salvation, they were fully instructed, and never spake but with the most unshaken confidence. This appears from the very first sermon which was delivered by any one of them. St. Peter argued with as strong a persuasion of mind as he possessed at any future period; and without hesitation affirmed, in the presence of thousands of his countrymen, that Jesus, even the very person whom they had crucified, was indeed the Christ, the true Messiah [Note: The order of the words in the Greek makes the expression very emphatical.].
His words are evidently the close of an argument: and, as they are delivered with peculiar confidence, it will be proper to consider,
I.
The force of his reasoning
Our Lord, according to his promise, had poured out the Spirit in a visible manner on his Disciples, whereby they were enabled to speak a great variety of languages, which gift was emblematically represented by the appearance of cloven tongues, as of fire. The circumstance of their immediately addressing all persons in their native tongues, excited the greatest astonishment: but those who understood not the particular language which they spake, represented them as in a state of intoxication. In vindication of himself and his associates, the Apostle justly observes, that such an imputation was absurd, since none but the most abandoned of men could have been drinking to intoxication so early as nine oclock in the morning, and that upon a solemn feast-day, when they were about to worship God in his temple; and then proceeds to argue with them respecting the Messiahship of Christ, as proved by this event. He states,
1.
That this miraculous gift was foretold by the Prophet Joel, as to be conferred by the Messiah
[The passage cited from the prophet Joel undoubtedly refers to the times of the Messiah [Note: Compare ver. 1621. with Joe 2:28-32.]. Previous to that time the Holy Spirit had been given only in a very partial way to a few: but, when Christ should be glorified, he was to be poured out, as it were, upon multitudes, both of men and women, that by his miraculous operations he might testify of Christ, and by his efficacious grace he might bring men to Christ.
After this should have been done for a space of time sufficient to evince the distinguished kindness of God towards his ancient people, and their incorrigible obstinacy towards him, God would give them signs of a very different kind; even such terrible signs, as should be like turning the sun into darkness, and the moon into blood; and then should destruction come upon them to the uttermost: but as, previously to that period, all who should believe in Christ should be saved from the condemnation in which all others would be involved, so, at that period, all his believing people should escape the miseries which would overwhelm the residue of that devoted nation.
This was the plain meaning of the prophecy, which at this time began to be fulfilled; and which in due season should receive a perfect accomplishment.]
2.
That this gift was actually conferred by Jesus
[It was known to all of them, that Jesus, during his ministry on earth, had wrought innumerable miracles in confirmation of his word and doctrine: and though the nation had put him to an ignominious death, yet had God raised him from the dead, and empowered him to send forth the Spirit in the manner he had done.
With respect to the truth of his resurrection, it had been foretold in terms that could be applicable to him alone [Note: Compare ver. 2328. with Psa 16:8-11.]. It could not be of himself that David spake those words; for he did die, and see corruption; and his tomb remained even to the Apostles days: but Jesus saw no corruption: his soul was not left in the place of departed spirits, nor was his body permitted to continue in the grave long enough to undergo any change: he rose on the third day, as all his Disciples could testify, because they had themselves seen him on that day, and occasionally conversed familiarly with him for forty days afterwards, even to the very hour when in their presence he ascended up to heaven. Moreover he had expressly told them that he would send down the Holy Ghost upon them, in the manner he had done: and therefore it must be HE, and none other but HE, that had wrought the miracles which they now saw and heard [Note: ver. 2933.].
If they should still be inclined to think that David had had any concern in this miracle, the Apostle called their attention to another prophecy of his, wherein David himself declared, that the person who should be thus invested with power at the right hand of God, was his Lord; and that the person so exalted, should make all his foes his footstool [Note: Compare ver. 34, 35. with Psa 110:1.].
It was evident therefore, that, as the Messiah was to rise from the dead, and ascend up to heaven for the purpose of establishing his kingdom upon earth; and as Jesus had risen and ascended agreeably to those predictions; there could be no doubt but that it was he who had now sent down the Spirit, according to the promise which he had given them. He had told them, but a few days before, that he would send forth upon them the promise of the Father, and baptize them with the Holy Ghost [Note: Act 1:4-5.]; and he had now done it in a way which commended itself to the eyes and ears of all the people.]
3.
That therefore Jesus must unquestionably be the true Messiah
[It was not in the power of any creature to work the miracles now wrought: nor would the Father work them in order to confirm the claims of an impostor. They must of necessity therefore have been wrought by Jesus, who had thereby proved himself the true Messiah.
On these grounds Peter declared to them, that, as they could not doubt the existence of those prophecies, or the application of them to the Messiah, or the miracle now wrought by Jesus in confirmation of his claim to that office, the whole house of Israel might know assuredly, that God had made that very Jesus, whom they had crucified, both Lord and Christ.]
Such was the Apostles reasoning: and from the confident manner in which he expressed himself, we are led to notice,
II.
The importance of his conclusion
If God has constituted Jesus both Lord and Christ, then we may know assuredly,
1.
That Christ is our only Lord and Saviour
[The force of this was felt by Peters audience, insomuch that three thousand of them instantly obeyed the heavenly mandate, and surrendered up themselves to be saved and governed by him alone. Precisely in this manner must we devote ourselves to him: we must not be contented with calling him Lord, Lord, but must feel the same need of him as they did, and cast ourselves upon him for mercy, and consecrate ourselves entirely to his service [Note: ver. 37, 38.]. We must admit no other ground of hope but his obedience unto death we must suffer no other Lord to have dominion over us: but, having been bought by him with his most precious blood, we must glorify him with our bodies and our spirits, which are his.]
2.
That he is an all-sufficient Saviour
[Whatever we can want, he is exalted to bestow. Do we need forgiveness of sins? He is empowered to grant it. Do we need repentance? He can impart that also. This we are assured of, on the testimony of Peter and all the other Apostles. What joyful tidings are these! Hear them, all ye who are labouring under a sense of guilt; and know, that the blood of Jesus Christ is able to cleanse you from all sin: and ye, who mourn on account of the hardness of your hearts, know that he can take away the heart of stone, and give you an heart of flesh If God the Father has constituted him Head over all things to the Church, you need not fear, but that there shall be found in his fulness an ample supply for all your necessities [Note: St. Paul pursues the same line of argument as St. Peter, and founds upon it this consolatory truth. Act 13:35-39. See also Heb 7:25.] ]
3.
That none shall ever look to him in vain
[Him that cometh unto me, says Christ, I will in no wise cast out What then have we to do with desponding thoughts? Has God thus exalted his Son, and will he disappoint those who trust in him? No: it cannot be: he never did, nor ever will, say to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain. Did the vilest person in the universe only desire mercy as much as God delights to exercise it, he would in one instant be purged from all his sin We need only look to the effect of Peters sermon on the murderous Jews, and we shall see a perfect pattern of what God is ready to do for us, the very instant we believe in Jesus Know this, my brethren; know it every one of you; know it most assuredly; know it for your inexpressible comfort: and may God make this another Pentecost to our souls, for his mercys sake! Amen.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Ver. 36. Lord and Christ ] Messiah the Prince, Dan 9:25 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
36 .] THE CONCLUSION FROM ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID.
. = . ., being a familiar noun used anarthrously: see Eph 2:21 , note, and Winer, edn. 6, 19, who however does not give in his list: the whole house of Israel for all hitherto said has gone upon proofs and sayings belonging to Israel , and to all Israel.
, as before, is the ground-tone of the discourse.
, from Act 2:34 .
, in the full and glorious sense in which that term was prophetically known. The same is expressed ch. Act 5:31 by . .
The final clause sets in the strongest and plainest light the fact to which the discourse testifies ending with , the remembrance most likely to carry compunction to their hearts. ‘In clausula orationis iterum illis exprobrat quod Eum crucifixerint, ut majori conscienti dolore tacti ad remedium aspirent.’ Calvin in loc. ‘Aculeus in fine.’ Bengel.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 2:36 . : used here emphatically; the Apostle would emphasise the conclusion which he is about to draw from his three texts; cf. Act 21:34 , Act 22:30 , and Wis 18:6 (so in classical Greek). ., without the article, for . is regarded as a proper name, cf. LXX, 1Sa 7:2 , 1Ki 12:23 , Neh 4:16 , Eze 45:6 , or it may be reckoned as Hebraistic, Blass, Grammatik des N. G. , pp. 147, 158. : the plainly refers to the prophetic utterance just cited. Although in the first verse of Psa 110 the words are not to be taken as a name of God, for the expression is Adoni not Adonai (“the LORD saith unto my Lord,” R.V.), and is simply a title of honour and respect, which was used of earthly superiors, e.g. , of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Sisera, Naaman, yet St. Peter had called David a Prophet, and only in the Person of the Risen and Ascended Christ Who had sat down with His Father on His Throne could the Apostle see an adequate fulfilment of David’s prophecy, or an adequate realisation of the anticipations of the Christ. So in the early Church, Justin Martyr, Apol. , i., 60, appeals to the words of “the prophet David” in this same Psalm as foretelling the Ascension of Christ and His reign over His spiritual enemies. On the remarkable expression in connection with Psa 110:1 , see Ryle and James, Psalms of Solomon , pp. 141 143, cf. with the passage here Act 10:36 ; Act 10:42 . In 1Pe 3:15 we have the phrase . . . (R.V. and W.H [128] ), “sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord” (R.V.), where St. Peter does not hesitate to command that Christ be sanctified in our hearts as Lord, in words which are used in the O.T. of the LORD of hosts, Isa 8:13 , and His sanctification by Israel. If it is said that it has been already shown that in Psa 110:1 Christ is referred to not as the Lord but as “my lord,” it must not be forgotten that an exact parallel to 1Pe 3:15 and its high Christology may be found in this first sermon of St. Peter, cf. note on Act 2:18-21 ; Act 2:33 . . , “hath made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified,” R.V., so Vulgate. The A.V., following Tyndale and Cranmer, inverts the clauses, but fails to mark what Bengel so well calls aculeus in fine , the stinging effect with which St. Peter’s words would fall on the ears of his audience, many of whom may have joined in the cry, Crucify Him! (Chrysostom). Holtzmann describes this last clause of the speech as “ein schwerer Schlusstein zur Krnung des Gebudes”.
[128] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Acts
PETER’ S FIRST SERMON
THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME
Act 2:36
It is no part of my purpose at this time to consider the special circumstances under which these words were spoken, nor even to enter upon an exposition of their whole scope. I select them for one reason, the occurrence in them of the three names by which we designate our Saviour-Jesus, Lord, Christ. To us they are very little more than three proper names; they were very different to these men who listened to the characteristically vehement discourse of the Apostle Peter. It wanted some courage to stand up at Pentecost and proclaim on the housetop what he had spoken in the ear long ago, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ To most of his listeners to say ‘Jesus is the Christ’ was folly, and to say ‘Jesus is the Lord’ was blasphemy.
The three names are names of the same Person, but they proclaim altogether different aspects of His work and His character. The name ‘Jesus’ is the name of the Man, and brings to us a Brother; the name ‘Christ’ is the name of office, and brings to us a Redeemer; the name ‘Lord’ is the name of dignity, and brings to us a King.
I. First, then, the name Jesus is the name of the Man, and tells us of a Brother.
Now the use of Jesus as the proper name of our Lord is very noticeable. In the Gospels, as a rule, it stands alone hundreds of times, whilst in combination with any other of the titles it is rare. ‘Jesus Christ,’ for instance, only occurs, if I count aright, twice in Matthew, once in Mark, twice in John. But if you turn to the Epistles and the latter books of the Scriptures, the proportions are reversed. There you have a number of instances of the occurrence of such combinations as ‘Jesus Christ,’ ‘Christ Jesus,’ ‘The Lord Jesus,’ ‘Christ the Lord,’ and more rarely the full solemn title, ‘The Lord Jesus Christ,’ but the occurrence of the proper name ‘Jesus’ alone is the exception. So far as I know, there are only some thirty or forty instances of its use singly in the whole of the books of the New Testament outside of the four Evangelists. The occasions where it is used are all of them occasions in which one may see that the writer’s intention is to put strong emphasis, for some reason or other, on the Manhood of our Lord Jesus, and to assert, as broadly as may be, His entire participation with us in the common conditions of our human nature, corporeal and mental.
And I think I shall best bring out the meaning and worth of the name by putting a few of these instances before you.
For example, more than once we find phrases like these: ‘we believe that Jesus died,’ ‘having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus ,’ and the like-which emphasise His death as the death of a man like ourselves, and bring us close to the historical reality of His human pains and agonies for us. ‘ Christ died’ is a statement which makes the purpose and efficacy of His death more plain, but ‘ Jesus died’ shows us His death as not only the work of the appointed Messiah, but as the act of our brother man, the outcome of His human love, and never rightly to be understood if His work be thought of apart from His personality.
There is brought into view, too, prominently, the side of Christ’s sufferings which we are all apt to forget-the common human side of His agonies and His pains. I know that a certain school of preachers, and some unctuous religious hymns, and other forms of composition, dwell, a great deal too much for reverence, upon the mere physical aspect of Christ’s sufferings. But the temptation, I believe, with most of us is to dwell too little upon that,-to argue about the death of Christ, to think about it as a matter of speculation, to regard it as a mysterious power, to look upon it as an official act of the Messiah who was sent into the world for us; and to forget that He bore a manhood like our own, a body that was impatient of pains and wounds and sufferings, and a human life which, like all human lives, naturally recoiled and shrank from the agony of death.
And whilst, therefore, the great message, ‘It is Christ that died,’ is ever to be pondered, we have also to think with sympathy and gratitude on the homelier representation coming nearer to our hearts, which proclaims that ‘Jesus died.’ Let us not forget the Brother’s manhood that had to agonise and to suffer and to die as the price of our salvation.
Again, when the Scripture would set our Lord before us, as in His humanity, our pattern and example, it sometimes uses this name, in order to give emphasis to the thought of His Manhood-as, for example, in the words of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ‘looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of faith.’ That is to say-a mighty stimulus to all brave perseverance in our efforts after higher Christian nobleness lies in the vivid and constant realisation of the true manhood of our Lord, as the type of all goodness, as having Himself lived by faith, and that in a perfect degree and manner. We are to turn away our eyes from contemplating all other lives and motives, and to ‘look off’ from them to Him. In all our struggles let us think of Him. Do not take poor human creatures for your ideal of excellence, nor tune your harps to their keynotes. To imitate men is degradation, and is sure to lead to deformity. None of them, is a safe guide. Black veins are in the purest marble, and flaws in the most lustrous diamonds. But to imitate Jesus is freedom, and to be like Him is perfection. Our code of morals is His life. He is the Ideal incarnate. The secret of all progress is, ‘Run-looking unto Jesus.’
Then, again, we have His manhood emphasised when His sympathy is to be commended to our hearts. ‘The great High Priest, who is passed into the heavens’ is ‘ Jesus’ . . . ‘who was in all points tempted like as we are.’ To every sorrowing soul, to all men burdened with heavy tasks, unwelcome duties, pains and sorrows of the imagination, or of the heart, or of memory, or of physical life, or of circumstances-to all there comes the thought, ‘Every ill that flesh is heir to’ He knows by experience, and in the Man Jesus we find not only the pity of a God, but the sympathy of a Brother.
When one of our princes goes for an afternoon into the slums in East London, everybody says, and says deservedly, ‘right!’ and ‘princely!’ This prince has learned pity in ‘the huts where poor men lie,’ and knows by experience all their squalor and misery. The Man Jesus is the sympathetic Priest. The Rabbis, who did not usually see very far into the depth of things, yet caught a wonderful glimpse when they said: ‘Messias will be found sitting outside the gate of the city amongst the lepers .’ That is where He sits; and the perfectness of His sympathy, and the completeness of His identification of Himself with all our tears and our sorrows, are taught us when we read that our High Priest is not merely Christ the Official, but Jesus the Man.
And then we find such words as these: ‘If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him’: I think any one that reads with sympathy must feel how very much closer to our hearts that consolation comes, ‘Jesus rose again,’ than even the mighty word which the Apostle uses on another occasion, ‘Christ is risen from the dead.’ The one tells us of the risen Redeemer, the other tells us of the risen Brother. And wherever there are sorrowing souls, enduring loss and following their dear ones into the darkness with yearning hearts, they are comforted when they feel that the beloved dead lie down beside their Brother, and with their Brother they shall rise again.
So, again, most strikingly, and yet somewhat singularly, in the words of Scripture which paint most loftily the exaltation of the risen Saviour to the right hand of God, and His wielding of absolute power and authority, it is the old human name that is used; as if the writers would bind together the humiliation and the exaltation, and were holding up hands of wonder at the thought that a Man had risen thus to the Throne of the Universe. What an emphasis and glow of hope there is in such words as these: ‘We see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus’-the very Man that was here with us- ‘crowned with glory and honour.’ So in the Book of the Revelation the chosen name for Him who sits amidst the glories of the heavens, and settles the destinies of the universe, and orders the course of history, is Jesus. As if the Apostle would assure us that the face which looked down upon him from amidst the blaze of the glory was indeed the face that he knew long ago upon earth, and the breast that ‘was girded with a golden girdle’ was the breast upon which he so often had leaned his happy head.
So the ties that bind us to the Man Jesus should be the human bonds that knit us to one another, transferred to Him and purified and strengthened. All that we have failed to find in men we can find in Him. Human wisdom has its limits, but here is a Man whose word is truth, who is Himself the truth. Human love is sometimes hollow, often impotent; it looks down upon us, as a great thinker has said, like the Venus of Milo, that lovely statue, smiling in pity, but it has no arms. But here is a love that is mighty to help, and on which we can rely without disappointment or loss. Human excellence is always limited and imperfect, but here is One whom we may imitate and be pure. So let us do like that poor woman in the Gospel story-bring our precious alabaster box of ointment-the love of these hearts of ours, which is the most precious thing we have to give. The box of ointment that we have so often squandered upon unworthy heads-let us come and pour it upon His, not unmingled with our tears, and anoint Him, our beloved and our King. This Man has loved each of us with a brother’s heart; let us love Him with all our hearts.
II. So much for the first name. The second-’Christ’-is the name of office, and brings to us a Redeemer.
I cannot see less in the contents of the Jewish idea, the prophetic idea, of the Messias, than these points: divine inspiration or anointing; a sufferer who is to redeem; the fulfiller of all the rapturous visions of psalmist and of prophet in the past.
And so, when Peter stood up amongst that congregation of wondering strangers and scowling Pharisees, and said, ‘The Man that died on the Cross, the Rabbi-peasant from half-heathen Galilee, is the Person to whom Law and Prophets have been pointing,’-no wonder that no one believed him except those whose hearts were touched, for it is never possible for the common mind, at any epoch, to believe that a man who stands beside them is very much bigger than themselves. Great men have always to die, and get a halo of distance around them, before their true stature can be seen.
And now two remarks are all I can afford myself upon this point, and one is this: the hearty recognition of His Messiahship is the centre of all discipleship. The earliest and the simplest Christian creed, which yet-like the little brown roll in which the infant beec-leaves lie folded up-contains in itself all the rest, was this: ‘Jesus is Christ.’ Although it is no part of my business to say how much imperfection and confusion of head comprehension may co-exist with a heart acceptance of Jesus that saves a soul from sin, yet I cannot in faithfulness to my own convictions conceal my belief that he who contents himself with ‘Jesus’ and does not grasp ‘Christ’ has cast away the most valuable and characteristic part of the Christianity which he professes. Surely a most simple inference is that a Christian is at least a man who recognises the Christship of Jesus. And I press that upon you, my friends. It is not enough for the sustenance of your own souls and for the cultivation of a vigorous religious life that men should admire, howsoever profoundly and deeply, the humanity of the Lord unless that humanity leads them on to see the office of the Messiah to whom their whole hearts cleave. ‘Jesus is the Christ’ is the minimum Christian creed.
And then, still further, let me remind you how the recognition of Jesus as Christ is essential to giving its full value to the facts of the manhood. ‘Jesus died!’ Yes. What then? What is that to me? Is that all that I have to say? If His is simply a human death, like all others, I want to know what makes the story of it a Gospel. I want to know what more interest I have in it than I have in the death of Socrates, or in the death of any man or woman whose name was in the obituary column of yesterday’s newspaper. ‘Jesus died.’ That is a fact. What is wanted to turn the fact into a gospel? That I shall know who it was that died, and why He died. ‘I declare unto you the gospel which I preach,’ Paul says, ‘how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.’ The belief that the death of Jesus was the death of the Christ is needful in order that it shall be the means of my deliverance from the burden of sin. If it be only the death of Jesus, it is beautiful, pathetic, as many another martyr’s has been, but if it be the death of Christ, then ‘my faith can lay her hand’ on that great Sacrifice ‘and know her guilt was there.’
So in regard to His perfect example. If we only see His manhood when we are ‘looking unto Jesus,’ the contemplation of His perfection would be as paralysing as spectacles of supreme excellence usually are. But when we can say, ‘ Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example,’ and so can deepen the thought of His Manhood into that of His Messiahship, and the conception of His work as example into that of His work as sacrifice, we can hope that His divine power will dwell in us to mould our lives to the likeness of His human life of perfect obedience.
So in regard to His Resurrection and glorious Ascension to the right hand of God. We have not only to think of the solitary man raised from the grave and caught up to the throne. If it were only ‘Jesus’ who rose and ascended, His Resurrection and Ascension might be as much to us as the raising of Lazarus, or the rapture of Elijah- namely, a demonstration that death did not destroy conscious being, and that a man could rise to heaven; but they would be no more. But if ‘ Christ is risen from the dead,’ He is ‘become the first-fruits of them that slept.’ If Jesus has gone up on high, others may or may not follow in His train. He may show that manhood is not incapable of elevation to heaven, but has no power to draw others up after Him. But if Christ is gone up, He is gone to prepare a place for us, not to fill a solitary throne, and His Ascension is the assurance that He will lift us too to dwell with Him and share His triumph over death and sin.
Most of the blessedness and beauty of His Example, all the mystery and meaning of His Death, and all the power of His Resurrection, depend on the fact that ‘it is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God.’
III. ‘The Lord’ is the name of dignity and brings before us the King.
The first and last of these may be left out of consideration now: the central one is the meaning of the word here. I have only time to touch upon two thoughts-to connect this name of dignity first with one and then with the other of the two names that we have already considered.
Jesus is Lord, that is to say, wonderful as it is, His manhood is exalted to supreme dignity. It is the teaching of the New Testament, that in Jesus, the Child of Mary, our nature sits on the throne of the universe and rules over all things. Those rude herdsmen, brothers of Joseph, who came into Pharaoh’s palace-strange contrast to their tents!-there found their brother ruling over that ancient and highly civilised land! We have the Man Jesus for the Lord over all. Trust His dominion and rejoice in His rule, and bow before His authority. Jesus is Lord.
Christ is Lord. That is to say: His sovereign authority and dominion are built upon the fact of His being Deliverer, Redeemer, Sacrifice. His Kingdom is a Kingdom that rests upon His suffering. ‘Wherefore God also hath exalted Him, and given Him a Name that is above every name.’
It is because He wears a vesture dipped in blood, that ‘on the vesture is the name written “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”‘ It is ‘because He shall deliver the needy when he crieth,’ as the prophetic psalm has it, that ‘all kings shall fall down before Him and all nations shall serve Him.’ Because He has given His life for the world He is the Master of the World. His humanity is raised to the throne because His humanity stooped to the cross. As long as men’s hearts can be touched by absolute unselfish surrender, and as long as they can know the blessedness of responsive surrender, so long will He who gave Himself for the world be the Sovereign of the world, and the First-born from the dead be the Prince of all the kings of the earth.
And so, dear friends, our thoughts to-day all point to this lesson- do not you content yourselves with a maimed Christ. Do not tarry in the Manhood; do not think it enough to cherish reverence for the nobility of His soul, the gentle wisdom of His words, the beauty of His character, the tenderness of His compassion. All these will be insufficient for your needs. There is more in His mission than these -even His death for you and for all men. Take Him for your Christ, but do not lose the Person in the Work, any more than you lose the work in the Person. And be not content with an intellectual recognition of Him, but bring Him the faith which cleaves to Him and His work as its only hope and peace, and the love which, because of His work as Christ, flows out to the beloved Person who has done it all. Thus loving Jesus and trusting Christ, you will bring obedience to your Lord and homage to your King, and learn the sweetness and power of ‘the name that is above every name’-the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
May we all be able, with clear and unfaltering conviction of our understandings and loving affiance of our whole souls, to repeat as our own the grand words in which so many centuries have proclaimed their faith-words which shed a spell of peacefulness over stormy lives, and fling a great light of hope into the black jaws of the grave: ‘I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord!’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
all the house, &c. Compare Act 2:14.
know. Greek. ginosko. App-132.
assuredly. Greek. asphalos. See note on “safely”, Mar 14:44.
have crucified = crucified. Greek. stauroo, not same word as in Act 2:23.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
36.] THE CONCLUSION FROM ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID.
. = . ., being a familiar noun used anarthrously: see Eph 2:21, note, and Winer, edn. 6, 19, who however does not give in his list: the whole house of Israel-for all hitherto said has gone upon proofs and sayings belonging to Israel, and to all Israel.
, as before, is the ground-tone of the discourse.
, from Act 2:34.
, in the full and glorious sense in which that term was prophetically known. The same is expressed ch. Act 5:31 by . .
The final clause sets in the strongest and plainest light the fact to which the discourse testifies-ending with ,-the remembrance most likely to carry compunction to their hearts. In clausula orationis iterum illis exprobrat quod Eum crucifixerint, ut majori conscienti dolore tacti ad remedium aspirent. Calvin in loc. Aculeus in fine. Bengel.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
You know that Peter had been preaching a plain, simple, straightforward sermon upon the death, crucifixion, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, who was once such a coward that he trembled before a little maid, now that he is filled with the Spirit, boldly charges this crowd with being murderers and deicides because their kind put to death the Lord of life and glory. If you turn to the 36th verse, you will see the effect of Peters plain preaching through the power of the Holy Spirit:
Act 2:36-37. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart,
A little later in this same Book, we read of those who listened to Stephens sharp, sword-like sentences, When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and soon they stoned Stephen to death. To be cut to the heart is not enough, but to be pricked in the heart is to receive a mortal wound. Happy is the man who has had his sin killed through having received a deadly wound from the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. These people who heard Peter preach were pricked in their heart, and, first, they were in doubt as to what they should do but, secondly, they were resolved that, whatever they should be told to do they would do at once.
Act 2:37-38. And said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Nobody but a Baptist minister could have preached that sermon, at least, we shall have to wait a long while before we hear any other saying to a whole congregation, Repent, and be baptized every one of you. This is indeed the full proclamation of the gospel, and we have no more right to leave out the baptism than we have to leave out the repentance. Repent, and be baptized every one of you. Peter was not like those hyper-Calvinists who are afraid to give an exhortation to a sinner because he is spiritually dead, but he spoke out boldly to those who had asked What shall we do? and said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.
Act 2:39. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
This is a most blessed verse. The promise is to us, and to our descendants; not merely to our children, but also to our grandchildren, ay, and to our race as far as it yet may run; and the next clause, and to all that are afar off proves that the promise is made to the far-off ones as well as to our children, with only this limitation, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Act 2:40. And with many other works did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Not, save yourselves from hell; that Christ alone can do for you, but save yourselves from this generation by coming boldly out from among the ungodly, taking upon you the distinctive mark of the Christian, and so separating yourselves from those upon whom the sentence of death shall fall.
Act 2:41-45. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
What a notable instance this was of the power of divine grace! We should not usually suppose that the Jewish race would be given to any excess of making common property; but where grace came in the first flush of its dawn, see to what prodigies of liberality it excited the early believers.
Would that we had more of this generous spirit nowadays!
Act 2:46. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
I believe that wherever two or three disciples of Christ meet together it is competent for them to celebrate the Lords supper. That ordinance is not, as some think it to be a church ordinance, to be confined to the official assembling of all believers; but wherever two or three are met in Christs name, there he is; and where he is, there may the emblems of his broken body and shed blood be partaken of in memory of him.
Act 2:47. Praising God, and having favor with all his people. And the lord added to the church daily such as should be saved
May he do the like unto all our churches, and he shall have the glory world without end! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Act 2:36. , assuredly) Peter proclaimed this aloud with great force. Comp. ch. Act 4:10, Act 13:38. , known.- [19] , both Lord and Christ) Peter had quoted the promise given to David concerning the Christ, and the Psalm, in which David had called Him Lord. Now therefore he infers the title, Lord, from Act 2:34, and from Psalms 110, and repeats the title, Christ, from Act 2:30, and from the promise given to David, conjoining both strong points (sinews) of his argument in this recapitulation. The particle , both, though omitted by some in the former place, makes the language very vivid.[20] Henceforward continually, in the New Testament, Jesus in His exaltation is meant by the appellation, Lord; Act 2:47, etc.; except where there is reference to the Hebrew , which requires to be explained according to the sense of the passages in the Old Testament.-, Him) viz. this Jesus. It is altogether demonstrative.-, hath made) and that too in such away, as that JESUS[21] was even previously Lord and Christ: Act 2:34.- , ye have crucified) The sting of his speech is put at the end.
[19] is pronounced the better reading by the margin of Ed. 2.-E. B.
[20] And this has been in some measure expressed in the Vers. Germ. by the repetition of the words Zu einem.-E. B.
[21] As the name JESUS means God-Saviour.-E. and T.
ABCDEde Vulg. have before . But the Elzevir Rec. Text (not Stephens) omit it.-E. and T.
So ABC Vulg. Iren.; but Ee and Rec. Text, . D corrected d omits .-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
all: Jer 2:4, Jer 9:26, Jer 31:31, Jer 33:14, Eze 34:30, Eze 39:25-29, Zec 13:1, Rom 9:3-6
that same: Act 2:22, Act 2:23, Act 4:11, Act 4:12, Act 5:30, Act 5:31, Act 10:36-42, Psa 2:1-8, Mat 28:18-20, Joh 3:35, Joh 3:36, Joh 5:22-29, Rom 14:8-12, 2Co 5:10, 2Th 1:7-10
Reciprocal: Lev 3:2 – kill it 1Ki 19:12 – a still Psa 20:6 – Now Psa 68:18 – rebellious Pro 1:23 – behold Isa 59:20 – unto Mat 16:20 – Jesus Mar 1:15 – repent Luk 1:32 – give Luk 2:11 – which Luk 2:26 – the Lord’s Luk 2:34 – and rising Joh 12:16 – when Joh 13:3 – knowing Joh 13:31 – Now Joh 21:7 – It is Act 3:6 – Jesus Act 4:10 – that by Act 7:35 – a ruler Act 17:3 – this Act 18:5 – and testified 1Co 8:6 – and one 2Co 4:5 – Christ 2Co 13:4 – yet Eph 4:5 – One Lord Phi 2:11 – is Lord Heb 12:2 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
6
Peter laid the foundation consisting of prophecy and its fulfillment, citing facts that could not be doubted nor disputed. Upon that foundation he declared that Jesus, the very one they had crucified, had been made by the God of Heaven, both Lord and Christ. The first word means a ruler, and the second denotes one who is anointed. The sentence means that God had anointed his Son to be the ruler of His people.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 2:36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly. Conclusion of the discourse. The whole of this first apostolic sermon was addressed to fetus. St. Peter in his argument lays little stress on the miracles of the Lord. He only alludes to them in passing, and argues alone from fulfilled prophecy, with which a Jew would be familiar. He showed from a passage in Joel, well known to his listeners, that the outpouring of the Spirit and its results, which they had just witnessed, was exactly what was foretold for the days of the Messiah. He then proceeded to point out that his Master, who had died and risen again, had fulfilled in every particular the strange prophecies contained in two famous Messianic Psalms. God hath made that same Jesus . . . Lord and Christ God hath made Him Lord of all (Act 10:36) by exalting Him to His right hand, and Christ (the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew Messiah, the Anointed) the One whom Israel looked forward to as their Deliverer and Redeemer for time and eternity. Meyer and also Gloag well remark here, that whilst on earth Jesus was equally Lord and Christ, but that then He was in the form of a servant, having emptied Himself of His power and glory, but by the resurrection and ascension was He openly declared to be so.
Whom ye have crucified. These words in the original Greek close the discourse. This glorious One, now reigning with all power from His throne at the right hand of God,Messiah and King,is no other than that Jesus whom ye crucified.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
That is, God the Father hath ordained and appointed this Jesus whom we have crucified, to be the head and Saviour of his church, he being the true and promised Messiah.
Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ was constituted and appointed by his Father, to be the supreme Governor and only Saviour of his church. God had made Jesus both Lord, and Christ, both a prince and a Saviour.
Note farther, How very close and home the apostle is in applying what he had said to his auditors; he doth not rest in generals; but says plainly, Ye are the men; This is the same Jesus whom ye have crucified, whom ye with wicked hands have slain: Had not the application been so close, it is probable the success of the sermon had not been so considerable.
Thence learn, That the success and efficacy of the word preached, depends upon a particular and warm application of it to every man’s conscience: generals will not affect. See an instance of it in what follows.
That is, God the Father hath ordained and appointed this Jesus whom we have crucified, to be the head and Saviour of his church, he being the true and promised Messiah.
Learn hence, That the Lord Jesus Christ was constituted and appointed by his Father, to be the supreme Governor and only Saviour of his church. God had made Jesus both Lord, and Christ, both a prince and a Saviour.
Note farther, How very close and home the apostle is in applying what he had said to his auditors; he doth not rest in generals; but says plainly, Ye are the men; This is the same Jesus whom ye have crucified, whom ye with wicked hands have slain: Had not the application been so close, it is probable the success of the sermon had not been so considerable.
Thence learn, That the success and efficacy of the word preached, depends upon a particular and warm application of it to every man’s conscience: generals will not affect. See an instance of it in what follows.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Jesus Is Master and King
The unmistakable conclusion of all the previous arguments is that Jesus of Nazareth was made Master and King by the Eternal Father ( Act 2:36 ). The very one they had crucified had now been placed by God in the position of authority. Anyone wishing to come to the Father would have to yield to Him!
The evidence presented by Peter on Pentecost was irrefutable. He had opened up two separate prophecies of David before their eyes. He had presented the testimony of reliable witnesses who had seen the resurrected Lord. He had called his listeners’ attention to the unique events of the day, which had to have originated from heaven itself through the workings of God’s Spirit. If Jesus’ tomb still contained Jesus’ remains, surely the Jews would have thrown them down in front of Peter and asserted that his body was corrupting just as David’s had. The fact that they remained silent is strong evidence of the Lordship of Jesus!
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
36. The progressive advances of his argument being now complete, those of them which needed proof being sustained by conclusive evidence, and the remainder consisting in facts well known to his audience, he announces his final conclusion in these bold and confident terms: (36) “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus whom you have crucified both Lord and Christ.”
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
36. Peter with the boldness of an archangel certifies and proves by David and Jacob that God has received, crowned and sceptered that same Jesus whom they had crucified both Lord and Christ. Thus he charges the mighty men of church and state with the blackest crime that ever cursed humanity. Nothing but the supernatural presence of the Holy Ghost in Peter kept them from killing him on the spot. See an illiterate fisherman prove more than a match for all the power of earth and hell.
CONVICTION
The supernatural presence of the Holy Ghost, indisputably manifest in Peter and the one hundred and twenty, despite the combined powers of church and state, earth and hell, settled down on that multitude a superhuman conviction like a nightmare from the eternal world, paralyzing resistance, confounding contradiction, demolishing the impregnable citadels of deep- seated prejudice, smashing the mighty bulwarks of tradition and priestcraft, undermining and demolishing mountains of church-pride and ploughing the very foundation of the hierarchy, flooding the multitude with a Niagara of consternation, uncoping hell and unveiling the devil, revealing the Gorgon horrors of the bottomless pit, the matchless altitudes of glorified humanity and the transcendent possibilities of the glorified Christ and the incarnate Holy Ghost. The flashed lightnings of conviction sweep away all decorum, annihilate all sense of propriety and dumfound all the courtesies inspired by an audience of one hundred thousand delegates from all the Jewish synagogues beneath the skies.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 36
Peter, in the foregoing speech, as he is addressing a Jewish audience, builds his argument on the predictions of the Old Testament Scriptures, in which they believed.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath {z} made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
(z) Christ is said to be “made” because he was advanced to that dignity, and therefore it is not spoken with reference to his nature, but with reference to his position and high dignity.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Peter wanted every Israelite to consider the evidence he had just presented because it proved "for certain" that Jesus of Nazareth (cf. Act 2:22) was God’s sovereign ruler (Lord) and anointed Messiah (Christ). It is clear from the context that by "Lord" Peter was speaking of Jesus as the Father’s co-regent. He referred to the same "Lord" he had mentioned in Act 2:21.
"This title of ’Lord’ was a more important title than Messiah, for it pictured Jesus’ total authority and His ability and right to serve as an equal with God the Father." [Note: Bock, "A Theology . . .," p. 104. See Witherington’s excursus on Luke’s Christology, pp. 147-53.]
Normative dispensationalists (both classical and revised, to use Blaising’s labels) hold that Peter only meant that Jesus of Nazareth was the Davidic Messiah. Progressive dispensationalists, along with covenant theologians (i.e., non-dispensationalists), believe that Peter meant that Jesus not only was the Davidic Messiah but that He was also reigning as the Davidic Messiah then. Thus the Davidic messianic kingdom had begun. Its present (already) phase is with Jesus on the Davidic throne ruling from heaven, and its future (not yet) phase will be when Jesus returns to earth to rule on earth.
Progressive dispensationalists (and covenant theologians) also believe that Jesus’ reign as Messiah began during his earthly ministry. [Note: Blaising, Progressive Dispensationalism, p. 248.] They see the church as the present stage in the progressive unfolding of the messianic kingdom (hence the name "progressive dispensationalism"). [Note: Ibid., p. 49.] Normative dispensationalists interpret the Davidic kingdom as entirely earthly and say that Jesus has not yet begun His messianic reign. He now sits on the Father’s throne in heaven ruling sovereignly, not on David’s throne fulfilling Old Testament prophecies concerning the Davidic king’s future reign (cf. Rev 3:21).
Peter again mentioned his hearers’ responsibility for crucifying Jesus to convict them of their sin and to make them feel guilty (cf. Act 2:23). [Note: See Darrell L. Bock, "Jesus as Lord in Acts and in the Gospel Message," Bibliotheca Sacra 143:570 (April-June 1986):147-48.]
"Peter did not present the cross as the place where the Sinless Substitute died for the world, but where Israel killed her own Messiah!" [Note: Wiersbe, 1:410.]
"Peter’s preaching, then, in Act 2:14 ff. must be seen as essentially a message to the Jews of the world, not to the whole world." [Note: Witherington, pp. 140-41.]
"The beginning and ending of the main body of the speech emphasize the function of disclosure. Peter begins, ’Let this be known to you,’ and concludes, ’Therefore, let the whole house of Israel know assuredly . . .,’ forming an inclusion (Act 2:14; Act 2:36). In the context this is a new disclosure, for it is the first public proclamation of Jesus’ resurrection and its significance. Act 2:22-36 is a compact, carefully constructed argument leading to the conclusion in Act 2:36: ’God made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Peter not only proclaims Jesus’ authority but also reveals the intolerable situation of the audience, who share responsibility for Jesus’ crucifixion. The Pentecost speech is part of a recognition scene, where, in the manner of tragedy, persons who have acted blindly against their own best interests suddenly recognize their error." [Note: Tannehill, 2:35.]
"The Pentecost speech is primarily the disclosure to its audience of God’s surprising reversal of their intentions, for their rejection has ironically resulted in Jesus’ exaltation as Messiah, Spirit-giver, and source of repentance and forgiveness." [Note: Ibid., 2:37.]
God bestowed His Spirit on the believers on Pentecost (and subsequently) for the same reason He poured out His Spirit on Jesus Christ when He began His earthly ministry. He did so to empower them to proclaim the gospel of God’s grace (cf. Act 1:8). Luke recorded both outpourings (Luk 3:21-22; Act 2:2-4; cf. Act 4:27; Act 10:28). This fact is further evidence that Luke wanted his readers to view their own ministries as the extension of Jesus’ ministry (Act 1:1-2).
"Luke’s specific emphasis (and contribution) to NT pneumatology is that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church not just to incorporate each believer into the body of Christ or provide the greater new covenant intimacy with him, but also to consecrate the church to the task of worldwide prophetic ministry as defined in Luk 4:16-30." [Note: Russell, p. 63.]
Peter mentioned that Jesus was now at the right hand of God in heaven four times in this part of his speech (Act 2:25; Act 2:30; Act 2:33-34). This had particular relevance for "all the house of Israel" (cf. Act 2:14; Act 2:22; Act 2:29).
"Apparently, therefore, the messiahship of Jesus was the distinctive feature of the church’s witness within Jewish circles, signifying, as it does, his fulfillment of Israel’s hopes and his culmination of God’s redemptive purposes.
"The title ’Lord’ was also proclaimed christologically in Jewish circles, with evident intent to apply to Jesus all that was said of God in the OT . . . . But ’Lord’ came to have particular relevance to the church’s witness to Gentiles just as ’Messiah’ was more relevant to the Jewish world. So in Acts Luke reports the proclamation of Jesus ’the Christ’ before Jewish audiences both in Palestine and among the Diaspora, whereas Paul in his letters to Gentile churches generally uses Christ as a proper name and proclaims Christ Jesus ’the Lord.’" [Note: Longenecker, p. 281.]