The Lord Jesus had finished His work in this world. He had offered Himself on the cross as a living sacrifice to satisfy divine justice. On the third day He had risen again. And then He had ascended to heaven, leaving His disciples to wait for the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
That promise was fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost, when “suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4). The result was that those who had come from many areas around the Mediterranean to Jerusalem, for the feast of Pentecost, could understand in their own languages what the disciples said about “the wonderful works of God”.
What did it mean? some asked in amazement. Others, in mockery, suggested that the disciples were drunk. Peter, in response, insisted that they were not drunk, especially as it was early in the day. And he asserted that what they had experienced was in fulfilment of Old Testament Scripture – of Joel’s prophecy in particular – from which Peter quoted (Acts 2:17-21). Then he went on to make three important points about Jesus.
First, he told the people, Jesus was “a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs”. The Jews had seen Jesus perform many wonders – including healing all kinds of diseases and even raising people from the dead – which made it plain that He was no ordinary man. God was attesting Him as the Messiah, the “Anointed One”, whose coming had been prophesied in the Old Testament. So He had every right to claim that the words, “The Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek” (Is 61:1, Lk 4:18), were fulfilled in Him. He could claim too that the words, spoken by God the Father in Psalm 2:7, “Thou art My Son”, were likewise fulfilled in Him and therefore that He was Himself divine.
The second point is that this wonderful Person, who performed so many miracles, suffered and died. Peter declared to the people that they had taken
Jesus, and “by wicked hands” had “crucified and slain” Him; yet that He was “delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”. It was obvious that One “approved of God” must have been holy and therefore, if He was put to death, it must have been by “wicked hands”. We are told that “the chief priests had delivered Him for envy” (Mk 15:10). And when the people in the crowd cried, “Crucify Him, crucify Him”, they were wickedly rejecting all the evidence showing that He had been approved by God – which they did in the face of the three-times-repeated testimony of Pilate, the Roman Governor, “What evil hath He done? I have found no cause of death in Him” (Lk 23:22).
Matthew Henry comments, “As the people’s act . . . it was an act of prodigious sin and folly; it was fighting against God to persecute One whom He approved as the darling of heaven; and fighting against their own mercies to persecute One that was the greatest blessing of this earth. Neither God designing it from eternity, nor His bringing good out of it to eternity, would in the least excuse their sin; for it was their voluntary act . . . from a principle morally evil.”
It is beyond the power of the human mind to understand how those who were involved in the trial and crucifixion of the Saviour could be condemned for their wickedness while they acted according to “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”. We must rest content with the fact that both truths have been revealed in the Word of God, which is absolutely trustworthy. Pilate was still personally responsible for giving the command to crucify Jesus, as was every individual in the crowd who called for His death. Similarly it was said of Judas: “Truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom He is betrayed!” (Lk 22:22). God had an unchangeable purpose to bring about the salvation of a vast multitude of sinners, and those wicked hands were instruments that He used in doing so. When Christ Jesus came to save sinners, there was no sin in Him, but there was sin on Him – the guilt of those whom it was the divine purpose to save. He took that guilt and bore it away, having suffered its wages, for “the wages of sin is death”.
It was obvious to all that were around the cross that Jesus suffered in weakness and shame; yet He was in control of everything that took place there. He was the High Priest who offered up Himself as the sacrifice which was to satisfy divine justice fully, for the sins of all those sinners whom He represented in His whole redemptive work on earth.
In his Gospel, John records several of the miracles that Jesus did, which He performed by His own authority – unlike any prophet or apostle. Then almost at the end of his Gospel, John tells us: “Many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book”; at once he adds, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” (Jn 20:30,31).
Especially when we take all four Gospels into consideration, we have an abundance of evidence that Jesus was able to perform miracles, which demonstrated that He was the One that God His Father had appointed as the Messiah and that His death, when properly considered, cast no doubt on that appointment. Rather, this was how God’s purpose for the salvation of sinners was to be brought about in a way consistent with His justice. And the whole revelation that we have been given in Scripture – and these points in particular – places on us a responsibility to believe in Jesus as the divinely-appointed Saviour of sinners like us. He is altogether suited to us in our need, and we are to trust in Him for the salvation of our guilty souls.
Peter’s third point is that God raised up Jesus, “having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it”. The resurrection was a sign that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of Himself was accepted. He had fully paid the price for man’s redemption; there was no sin remaining on Him, and so death could not hold Him any longer. There was now a free salvation for sinners, and Peter and the other disciples could call them to repent – to turn from sin to God and to holiness, because of Christ and what He had done as the substitute for transgressors of God’s law. As Peter told the people, the disciples were witnesses to the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead, and it was He – now exalted to heaven – who had poured out the Holy Spirit, who had made them able to speak in other tongues.
His miracles authenticated Jesus as the Messiah; so the miraculous power to speak in other tongues authenticated the disciples as preachers of the risen Christ. These signs and wonders have been recorded in Scripture and, now that Scripture is complete, the gospel message needs no further authentication. We need not look for further miracles today; yet the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of sinners is a sign of the authority of the gospel message as proclaimed by Christ’s ambassadors until the end of time. As they proclaim the truths of the gospel – summed up in the words: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15) – every hearer should feel the responsibility to believe in this crucified and risen Saviour, for the gospel is “made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (Rom 16:26). And having trusted in Him, believers are to go on in obedience to King Jesus, who orders all their circumstances for their good, and in sincere worship of Him as the One who died for them and rose again.