Acts 2:22-36

October 28, 2001  

Reformation Sunday: God’s Grace in Christ

The events of the past months leave us reeling, wondering where is God in chaos.

Will the unsteady alliance with Islamic nations crumble, not only leaving us unable to pursue terrorists, but worse, will there be an increased antagonism against America? Will biological warfare alter our lives forever as anthrax or smallpox produce epidemics the likes of which we have never seen?  What of our economy plunging into recession? In all this we are tempted to ask:

“Where do we see God’s grace at work in our world today?”

The encroaching fear of our day seems to displace grace. The simple reason is that for so many grace is but a synonym of God’s reward, God’s good pleasure shown to us by making our lives full of peace and prosperity. A gracious God is one who gives me health and happiness. So we decide when God is gracious.

What hinders us from grasping grace is not that chaos shouts louder than grace, but that we have shut our eyes so as not to see God’s gracious hand in adversity. For so many people, grace is absent because they don’t know where to look. Bono, the lead singer for U2 recently said:

"It's a powerful idea, grace. It really is. And, you know, we hear so much of karma and so little of grace. Every religion teaches us about karma and, well, what you put out you will receive. And even Christianity, which is supposed to be about grace, has turned ... redemption into good manners, or the right accent, or ... good works.... I just can't get over grace-[it's] so hard to find."

The grace of God is so hard to find, not because it is hidden from us, but because our eyes are closed to God’s Word all the while searching for it in God’s world, apart from God’s work in Christ. God’s grace is most clearly seen there and if we grapple with grace in Christ, then we will see it in our lives.

The problem is the gospel message seems much too simple for our complex age. This problem is no different when Peter spoke to the crowds gathered for Pentecost. They had experienced the rushing wind, the tongues of fire they wondered what was going on.

To explain the phenomena of the Spirit, Peter pointed to Joel 2 where God promised to send his Spirit upon all who call on the name of the Lord, irrespective of status, age, office, gender. But while Joel’s prophecy of the outpouring of the Spirit explains the phenomena of that day, we can easily miss its context. Joel spoke to a people decimated by plague, demoralized by sin. The Spirit’s coming gives hope, but it is hope in the face of calamity. That promise is in the context of creation’s chaos with celestial catastrophes and earthly cataclysms of blood, fire, and smoke.

While such events were fulfilled as Christ hung on the cross, we must not miss the connection of God’s grace given in tragedy, of promise seen most powerfully in affliction. Those events are terrifying, but the passage is comforting. How can these two go together? What we see in this passage is a truth which often escapes us, that God’s grace is most clearly seen in the context of suffering, in relation to pain, through the lens of sin. On this Reformation Sunday, let us once again see God’s grace powerfully displayed in Jesus’ incarnation, resurrection and exaltation. It is in God’s grace and His grace alone in His Son that we can find help and hope. READ Acts 2:22-36

God’s grace is seen in Jesus’ incarnation   22-23

Jesus’ incarnation was approved by the Father

Peter now launches into the heart of his message. In light of the outpouring of the Spirit, notice what Peter does not do. Peter doesn’t point to the extraordinary signs and wonders and calls people to join these new believers. “Trust Jesus and you too can have supernatural power!” Nor does Peter share his own personal experience of how life transforming it is to know Jesus. It is not his powerful testimony that is in view. Rather, he takes this opportunity to present the life, death, resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ as the call to repentance.

Peter beings with Jesus’ life, briefly highlighting that which they already knew. The audience is well aware of Jesus’ life and God’s gracious power that was at work in him. But what are the implications of the Father’s pleasure resting on Jesus?

Jesus’ life was without the fanfare we would expect, yet, God attested to the deity of His Son. God’s endorsement of Jesus is seen not the stature of his birth, not in troops led into battle nor discoveries made, but God’s stamp of approval were authenticating miracles. The wonders and signs which Joel foretold were found in Jesus. Those who gathered on that Pentecost Sunday could not deny the Father’s acceptance of the Son.

Jesus’ incarnation was rejected by humanity

This same audience who saw the miracles, were also the crowds who clamored for his death, yelling: “Crucify Him!” With grace fully evident to one and all, all rejected what God did.

What happens when God’s grace is placed in humanity’s hands? Like giving a two year old a porcelain vase, when Jesus was handed over to the Jewish leadership, they with wicked men, the Jewish term for Gentiles, they crushed the one approved by God.

What happens when God’s grace is trampled upon? God’s grace is still at work. Despite the greatest atrocity known to all humanity, God’s grace used human wickedness to glorify himself and show mercy to those who reject his gift.  Here we see the balance of God’s divine purposes and human responsibility. Jesus died as the result of deliberate human decision made in the exercise of their God-given freedom of choice. Yet that choice is dictated by the bent of their nature. Peter does not bat an eye at the conundrum of divine sovereignty and human sinful choice. Human responsibility remains intact while divine purpose is achieved.

The death of Christ, the greatest atrocity of all time, an act of rebellion and defiance against the Creator of the universe was enacted not contrary to the Father’s will, but in accord with it. God the Father did not send his Son to persuade humanity to turn toward him and unwittingly and helplessly saw his Son be murdered. What appears to be an aside in v23 is an important aspect of his argument. Jesus’ death was something that the Father planned. But notice the order here.

God sets his purpose and then what he has set is able to foresee. It is not that the death of Christ was only known by God through looking ahead in time and realizing what wicked men would do and the Father then went along with that plan. Rather, the Father plans, sets in motion and dictates that which will happen. Foreknowledge is not simply knowing beforehand what will occur, as if God is just clairvoyant. Foreknowledge is an active term, a determination wherein what God planned, he guarantees will come to occur.

Author Philip Yancey once wrote in an article how when he was young, he took pride in his ability to play chess. He was, by his own admission, a chess geek, a member of the school’s chess club, often found sitting at the lunch table with other nerds pouring over books with titles like Classic King Pawn Openings. He studied techniques and won most of his matches.

Some years later, he finally meet a chess master. Any classic offense he tried, a classic defense was enacted. Yancey turned to risky, unorthodox techniques, and he incorporated his bold forays into winning strategies. He had complete freedom to make any move, but he soon realized that his strategies made no difference. His moves only served the master’s end. (Yancey, "Chess Master," CT 5/22/00)

It would seem that God engages his universe in an analogous fashion, but more so. Even as he ordained the Fall, so he also orders our rebellion to play into our redemption and all that by God’s grace. Yancey concludes by saying: “If I accept that blueprint ...it transforms how I view both good and bad things that happen. Good things, such as health, talent, and money, I can present to God as offerings to serve his purposes. And bad things, too--disability, poverty, family dysfunction, failures--can be redeemed as the very instruments that drive me to God.”

Rather than seeing God’s sovereignty as a cold heartless act, this passage points out how grace works to glorify God despite our sin. Romans 8 clarifies this even more where it says that God works all things for good. That does not mean that we call tragedy good, taking a sick pleasure in evil.

Rather, the good Paul speaks of here is the good of our salvation. That grace operates in the sphere of sin. God the Father’s giving us His Son is the clearest example of grace that continues to flow to us, despite a world filled with evil. In 8:32 Paul sees the giving of Christ as the beginning of many more good things to come.

We do not know what eternal good will come out of our present evil. We may never know in this life. Yet, what we do know is that since God graciously gave us Christ, we can live with confident expectation, rock solid certainty that our God will never leave us or forsake us. Rather than living in fear of anthrax onslaught or terrorists’ attack – we can face hardship with confidence in the Father’s love.

God’s grace is seen in Jesus’ resurrection    24-32

Jesus’ resurrection defeats death

The Father’s gracious response to sin is again emphasized. The power of God to take immense wickedness and turn it into good is seen in v24 in raising Jesus from the dead.

The agony of death was unable to hold Jesus down. Peter’s statement is really a mixed metaphor – literally it reads: “the birth pangs of death”.  Christ’s death is not the end, but leading to a new beginning. In his death there is rebirth not just of the risen Son, but ours as well. The author of life can not be held by the power of death.

Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates God’s promise of life

Peter once again turns to God’s Word for an explanation. With the Christ-centered reading of the Old Testament, he goes to Psalm 16 to prove that Christ’s resurrection is a sign of God’s grace.

The extent to which David understood his own divinely inspired utterance is beside the point. Last week we looked at 1 Peter 1 where the point is made that what the prophets stated in the Old Testament were often hidden from them, but that we understand only on this side of the cross. Knowing Christ is necessary to accurately read and understand the Old Testament.

In Psalm 16 David lyrically expresses his joy that he will be raised from the dead. But there is one problem: David died. Therefore he was not the Holy One of whom he spoke. He spoke prophetically, not autobiographically. The promise made in Ps 132:11 speaks of another who would sit on David’s throne. Peter uses Scripture here not to prove that Jesus rose from the dead, but that Jesus is the messiah, the rightful heir to the throne of David. The proof of resurrection is the eyewitness report of the Apostles (v32).

David’s tomb was still there. According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Herod attempted to loot David’s tomb of silver, but was thwarted when two of his men were killed by a sudden burst of flame upon entering the tomb. Having second thoughts, Herod abandoned the project and built a white marble portico over the tomb.

Christ’s resurrection is evidence of the Father’s approval of the Son and his gracious acceptance of us. Grace is seen in face of death, for even death can not defeat God’s grace.

The promises made to David are fulfilled in Christ. What we have, has been secured by another. We see that in how David speaks of Christ’s work as though he participates in it himself. Jesus’ resurrection is ours, since we are in Christ. That Christ was not allowed to decay, we too, even in death, know that we will not be abandoned to the grave. God’s grace pursues us even in death.

God’s grace is seen in Jesus’ exaltation   33-35

Jesus’ exaltation sends Spirit

Exaltation is a integral part of the apostolic message and part of Christian creeds. The reign of Christ is not a truth for some future kingdom, but is true today. Christ now reigns, we need not wait for certain events to unfold for that to occur. Here too God’s grace shines brightly.

Just as the apostles were witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, so the Jewish crowd witnessed the exaltation of Christ as they witnessed the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. Only one who is exalted to God’s right hand can dispense the gift of the Spirit.

It is only now that Peter even gets to the Holy Spirit and at that, the mention is rather brief. At Pentecost, with the miraculous signs of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Peter talks about Christ’s incarnation, resurrection and exaltation. Where we may have expected a lengthy talk about the third person of the Trinity, we get gospel. This is no accident.

Before Jesus went to the cross he told his disciples of the Spirit’s coming and his work. In John 15:26 Jesus says: “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” Similarly, in Jn 16:14 Jesus declared, “he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” As the Spirit descended and Peter preached, the subject was understandably not the Spirit, but Jesus.

Having explained that the gift of the Holy Spirit is but another evidence of the Father’s gracious acceptance of the Son, Peter once again goes back to God’s Word to point his hearers to Christ.

Another psalm of David, 110, once again shows that David spoke not of himself, but of his descendant. David writes about something far, far greater than himself. Jesus makes use of this Psalm in Luke 20:41 where he asks the obvious question: How can the Lord be David’s Son? The only possible answer is that by the incarnation of God the Son and His exaltation to the throne of God can this be said. Peter takes this psalm to show that this same Jesus who died and rose from the dead is the one who is now at the right hand of God.

Spurgeon once said: “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that sovereignty overrules them, and that sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought to more earnestly contend to than the doctrine of their Master over all creation--the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands--the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that throne...for it is God upon the Throne whom we trust.”

With this now set, Peter calls for a response. There are two truths which demand a response.

First, Jesus is both Lord and Christ. Second, this same Jesus you crucified.

The essence of the crime against Jesus was not the ending of his physical life. The essence of the crime against Jesus was the rejection of God in Jesus' life. Notice how Peter presents Jesus Christ. He does not mince words. With a constant reminder of God’s grace, how he authenticated Jesus of Nazareth, raised him from the dead and exalted him to His right hand is the Jesus they put to death. There is no sentimental pleading, no idea that they need do God a favor by accepting Christ. Peter preached the divine truth in all its power, the effect took care of itself.

It should be evident from this that what Peter states to those gathered there that morning is what needs be said to us today. You and I were not bodily present when the charges were made against Jesus. We can imagine that we would not join the mobs in their demand for his death. But to think that way would be a fabrication of our imagination.

By our sin, both that in Adam and in daily practice – we crucified Christ. Our nature is bent to reject God’s grace seen in his divine rule in this world. We bristle under the thought that we owe all we are and have to our Creator. But we would deny we are against God. We are like those gathered on Pentecost.

We may be religious, moral people. So to be told we are at odds with God is unthinkable ... until we admit we by nature do not see God’s grace in Jesus’ incarnation, resurrection and exaltation. The question is not whether you believe in God or not or even whether you love or serve God. The issue which we must face is that Jesus is both Lord and Christ not on the basis of our response, but despite our decision for or against Him. It is not that we make Jesus our Lord – but do you fall before Him because He is Lord.

To put it another way – does God’s grace, the Father’s pleasure flow to you when you obey or in your disobedience? Does your morality matter to God or does God’s grace extend to you in your sin so that, when you see how gracious God is while you are so very rebellious, you fall down and worship Him as Lord and God?

The rebellious heart which crucified Christ is the dark heart of seeking to please God by personal obedience to the Law of God all the while rejecting the grace God extends in Christ. We can’t manipulate God’s grace by our own goodness, nor foolishly imagine God’s pleasure rests on us when times are good. Instead, in the midst of our stress, anxiety and the chaos we must see that our gracious Father extends his mercy to us, to work in us what is good ... the calling us as His sons and daughters.