God Has Installed Jesus as King

GOD HAS INSTALLED JESUS AS KING  

An Exposition of Acts 2:22-41

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: March 9, 2025

Series: The Book of Acts

Note: Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

I invite you to turn to Acts 2:22-41. Before I read this passage, let me set up the background.

Thousands of Jewish exiles from every nation under heaven had returned to Jerusalem. They were part of a generation of Jewish people that Jesus referred to as evil and adulterous (Matthew 16:4). An evil and adulterous generation is bent the wrong way, seeking after the wrong things, and heading fast toward judgment.

Of course, the Old Testament was important to these Jewish people. It was part of their heritage. And their Old Testament Scriptures had promised a Messiah, a Son of David, who would come and save the nation. They thought that their Messiah would make their present life, their physical life, their financial life, their national political life, much, much better. They thought that their Messiah would usher in a new golden age for the nation of Israel, that Israel would be set free from its bondage to the power of Rome. And if this Messiah could produce miraculous signs and wonders on demand, leveraging the power of God for their earthly good, so much the better.

But over the course of time, Jesus made it clear that He was not a political Messiah, He was not a nationalistic Messiah, He was not an economic Messiah. He hadn’t come to change their earthly fortunes. He hadn’t come to satisfy their cravings for power and influence. Jesus was an altogether different Messiah than the one that they had expected: He demonstrated grace to outsiders and nobodies and misfits; He pronounced God’s blessing upon the poor and the persecuted; He called people to take up their crosses and embrace the path of humble servanthood in a context of suffering and rejection; He called people to extend forgiveness and kindness to those who had wronged them; and He Himself was prepared to lose everything in this present world in order to gain something they couldn’t see, couldn’t understand, couldn’t embrace. And so, this evil and adulterous generation did what one would expect: the power brokers saw to it that He was eliminated. That elimination had taken place fifty days prior to the sermon in Acts 2; Jesus had been affixed to a cross and removed from this world.

But there was chatter among the people that He had risen from the dead. And if people thought that His followers would fade away, the events of this day were beginning to suggest just the opposite. For 120 of Jesus’ followers had just had their mouths loosed to proclaim God’s mighty works in the native languages of all that nations that these Jewish exiles had come from. Some of the men in the audience mockingly dismissed the inexplicable speech as the result of those 120 people being under the influence of alcohol, as unlikely as that was given the fact that it was only 9:00am! But the more thoughtful people in the audience wanted to know what it meant that these 120 people were declaring God’s message in so many different languages. Clearly these 120 people didn’t know the languages they were speaking in. Was this a sign? Was God attempting to get their attention?

In Acts 2:14-21, the apostle Peter stood up and offered an initial explanation as to what was happening. Peter said that long ago God had promised to pour out His Spirit on all of His people, on the old and the young, on men and on women. And then Peter said that this long-awaited day of salvation had arrived, the Holy Spirit has been poured out, and all are exhorted to come and “call upon the name of the Lord” and “be saved” (Acts 2:21). But saved from what?

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Let’s pick things up at verse 22. Holy Scripture says:

²² “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—²³ this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. ²⁴ God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. ²⁵ For David says concerning him,

“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
    for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
²⁶ therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
    my flesh also will dwell in hope.
²⁷ For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
    or let your Holy One see corruption.
²⁸ You have made known to me the paths of life;
    you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

²⁹ “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. ³⁰ Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, ³¹ he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. ³² This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. ³³ Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. ³⁴ For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
³⁵     until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

³⁶ Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

³⁷ Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” ⁴⁰ And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” ⁴¹ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:22-41)

THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS (v. 22-36)

What is painfully obvious in Peter’s sermon is that the people in the audience had gotten Jesus terribly wrong. They had thought that He was a Messianic pretender, a false teacher, a troublemaker, an enemy of the Jewish nation, a renegade who didn’t care about their institutions, their temple, their law, their privileged status. But they were wrong, and now Peter is confronting them with the truth about Jesus.

The fact is, you cannot be in a right relationship with God unless you are in a right relationship with Jesus. God has undertaken very specific action with Jesus, and God means for you to receive Jesus as the one and only God-approved Savior and King. Those who receive Jesus, receive God. Those who reject Jesus, reject God.

And so, Peter’s message is clearly focused on Jesus, but not on Jesus alone. Instead, Peter is very intentional about showing the relationship between God and Jesus. Peter labors to show what God did through and for Jesus. Peter covers four key highlights in the story of Jesus, in chronological order: first, the ministry of Jesus (v. 22); second, the death of Jesus (v. 23); third, the resurrection of Jesus (v. 24-32); and fourth, the ascension and exaltation of Jesus (v. 33-36). Let’s unpack these four key highlights, one at a time.

The ministry of Jesus (v. 22)

First, in terms of Jesus’ earthly ministry: God verified the specialness of Jesus by doing mighty works through Him (v. 22). Jesus was born in Bethlehem and spent part of His childhood in Egypt, but eventually he and his family settled in the town of Nazareth, and thus He is called “Jesus of Nazareth”. God the Father was determined to testify to the people that Jesus is His beloved Son, and that Jesus had been commissioned by God and therefore possessed divine authority. God did “mighty works and wonders and signs” through Jesus. Remember the miracles, the healings, the feeding of the five thousand, the water turned into wine, the casting out of demons, the cleansing of the lepers, the raising of Lazarus and others who had died – these miracles were designed to get people’s attention, to help them realize that Jesus wasn’t a mere man. God wanted people to take notice of Jesus and reckon with Jesus and His teaching. The “mighty works and wonders and signs” were like a highlighter to draw people’s attention.

Notice the phrases that emphasize God’s desire to reveal the specialness of Jesus to the people: God testified “to you”; God performed mighty deeds through Jesus “in your midst, as you yourselves know” (v. 22). If you know what God has done, then you are responsible for acting wisely on that knowledge!

And although you and I weren’t there to experience these things firsthand, they have been written down because God wants us to engage with and be confronted by the very same truth.

The death of Jesus (v. 23)

Second, in terms of Jesus’ suffering and death: God delivered up Jesus to death (v. 23). Verse 23 is worded very carefully. God was directly and immediately involved in the miracles of Jesus: “that God did through him” (v. 22). God was directly and immediately involved in the resurrection of Jesus: “God raised him up” (v. 24). But the subject of the death of Jesus requires careful explanation: for even though God willed and planned the death of Jesus, the crucifixion took place through the instrumentality of wicked men. And so, in verse 23 Peter emphasizes God’s predetermined plan instead of God’s direct action. Jesus was handed over to men and delivered up to death in accordance with the script that God had written beforehand: “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God”. It’s not just that God knew what was going to happen; He decided what was going to happen; He determined it; He had it written down in the Old Testament; and at the appointed time, He carried it out. The Father wants us to understand that He planned the sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation of His people. As it says in Isaiah 53: “it was the will of the LORD to crush him” (Isaiah 53:10). And again: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

And yet, part of the mystery of the cross is that all the people involved in the arrest, sentencing, flogging, crucifying, and killing of Jesus were acting wickedly. None of them could say that they were humbly and eagerly doing God’s will. They were unwittingly doing God’s will, because God’s sovereign will is so great that it includes the actions of rebellious people. But the people of Israel should have bowed down and honored Jesus as their Messiah. Instead, they handed their Messiah over to the Gentiles, to Pilate and the Roman authorities, in order to be executed. The Gentiles also should have bowed down and honored Jesus as the Savior of the world. Instead, they nailed him to the cross.

Now if you reject and put to death the Messiah and Savior that God sent to you, then you’re in real trouble. You’re in grave danger of divine judgment. To dismiss and murder the Messiah chosen and commissioned by God, is to be guilty of high treason against the kingdom of God.

The resurrection of Jesus (v. 24-32)

The earthly ministry of Jesus only received one verse (v. 22). The death of Jesus, as important as it is and it is discussed at length elsewhere, only receives one verse in this sermon (v. 23). For this inaugural sermon, Peter’s clear emphasis is the resurrection and exaltation of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus receives nine verses (v. 24-32). The point is clear: God raised Jesus from the dead.

Peter begins in verse 24 by saying, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death” (v. 24). Notice the contrast between the end of verse 23 and the beginning of verse 24. The end of verse 23 says, “you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Then verse 24 begins, “God raised him up”. In other words, God reversed your decision; God overruled your action. You the human jury cast judgment against Jesus, putting Him to death; but God the Supreme Judge ruled in favor of Jesus, “loosing the pangs of death” and restoring Him to life. Now clearly you all who put Jesus to death are at odds with the living God who raised Jesus from the dead.

Next, Peter proceeds to show that just as the crucifixion itself happened according to the predetermined plan of God, so the resurrection of Jesus was also the plan all along. He says that the resurrection was inevitable, “because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” (v. 24) Why was it not possible for Jesus to be held by “the pangs of death”? There are multiple reasons that could be given, but the reason that Peter focuses on is that Old Testament Scripture foretold that Jesus would not be abandoned to suffer physical corruption in the grave. In verses 25-28, Peter quotes from Psalm 16:8-11 – 

“For David says concerning him,

“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
    for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
    my flesh also will dwell in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
    or let your Holy One see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
    you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ (v. 25-28)

The person that David is talking about in Psalm 16 has a special and close relationship with the Lord; that person’s flesh “will dwell in hope”; that person’s soul will not be abandoned to Hades, the realm of the dead; that person will not face corruption; instead, that person will enjoy fullness of life in the presence of God.

Now when Peter quotes from Psalm 16, the question that naturally occurs to the listener is: who is David actually talking about? At first glance, it sounds like David is talking about himself. But Peter knows and understands that David was not talking about himself – or at least David wasn’t talking ultimately about himself. This is why Peter had said, “For David says concerning him” (v. 25), that is, regarding Jesus. Then in verses 29-31 Peter defends his point.

In verse 29, Peter calls attention to the fact that David himself did not experience what Psalm 16 had promised: “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” (v. 29) In other words, God did allow David’s body to remain in the grave and suffer corruption and decomposition. So, knowing David’s words to be true, they must have been referring to someone else, even though David had spoken with the first-person words me, my, and I throughout the psalm.

And so, in verse 30, Peter reminds everyone that David was a prophet. Of course, David was also a king. David was the king that God chose to rule over His people Israel, and God formed a covenant with David, and God promised that descendants of David would sit upon Israel’s throne, and moreover God promised to David and to the entire nation of Israel that one day God would send one very special descendant of David, and this very special descendant of David would be king forever. This very special ‘son of David’ would be the true king, the Messiah, the Lord’s Anointed One. And what Peter shows us in verses 30-31 is that King David, having received this promise, had been enabled by God to foresee and speak prophetically about the resurrection of the Messiah:

“Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.” (v. 30-31)

So, when you finally see a ‘son of David’ raised up from the dead, then you would know that this is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Holy One spoken about in Psalm 16. And that time had come: “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.” (v. 32) Remember, the twelve apostles were fundamentally witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 1:22) – and so Peter really clamps down on this point: “and of that [Jesus’ resurrection] we all are witnesses.”

The exaltation of Jesus (v. 33-36)

Having devoted nine verses to the resurrection of Jesus, Peter concludes his sermon by devoting four verses to the exaltation of Jesus in heaven (v. 33-36). The emphasis here is that God has installed Jesus as Lord and Christ, seated on His heavenly throne at God’s right hand.

In verse 33, Peter circles back to Peter’s earlier comment in Acts 1:17-18 that the Holy Spirit had been poured out on Jesus’ disciples and this is the reason that they spoke in the languages of the people in the audience. Now in verse 33 Peter says that Jesus is the One who is responsible for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he [that is, Jesus] has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” Remember, all those people who were hearing God’s mighty works declared in their own native languages “were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”” (Acts 1:12) Well, verse 33 tells us what it means: what it means is that Jesus is King! Jesus, the Holy One, the Righteous One, the Risen One, atoned for sin and conquered death and entered into the presence of God as the perfect and triumphant Man, the one Mediator between God and humankind, and God invested all of His sovereign rule and divine resources in Jesus, including and especially “the promise of the Holy Spirit”, and now the exalted Lord Jesus has the exclusive right to bestow the Holy Spirit of the living God upon His people. “What does this mean?” It means that Jesus is King!

The first indication that Jesus is divine

It is quite right to refer to Jesus as the perfect and triumphant Man, for that He is, and yet He is not a mere man. Jesus is the God-Man: the God who became Man, the Man who is also God. Of course, in this sermon Peter isn’t attempting to unpack the ins and outs of how the deity of Jesus relates to the deity of God the Father. Not every sermon unpacks every important point that one might wish to address. And yet, there are at least three indications in Acts 2:22-41 that point to the deity of Jesus. And the first indicator is right here in verse 33. According to verse 33, who poured out the Holy Spirit upon God’s people? Jesus. According to verses 17-18, who would pour out the Holy Spirit upon God’s people? God. When you see significant correlations like this, you start to think through how to describe the relationship between Jesus and God. Jesus has God’s authority. God the Father kept His promise to pour out His Spirit upon His people by entrusting the action to the divine-human Messiah seated at His right hand.

The second indication that Jesus is divine

In verses 34 -35 Peter revisits another prophecy of King David. Here again, Peter emphasizes the fact that David, having died and been buried and remaining in the grave and not ascending into heaven, was talking about someone who didn’t remain in the grave and did ascend into heaven:

“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.”’” (v. 34-35)

Peter is quoting David from the beginning of Psalm 110. In the Hebrew text, the first occurrence of ‘Lord’ is Yahweh, which is why in most of our English Bibles if you turn to Psalm 110, it will begin with “The LORD” (with all of the letters in caps). Yahweh is God’s personal, covenantal name. The second occurrence of ‘Lord’ is Adonai, which is a title meaning ‘Lord, Master, Ruler’. Yahweh God is often referred to as Adonai throughout the Old Testament. And yet here in Psalm 110, two persons are in view: Yahweh said to my Adonai, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” Now think about this. When King David, the most powerful man in Israel, refers to someone as “my Lord” or ‘my Adonai’, he cannot be referring to a mere man. Yahweh bestows unrivaled honor upon this Adonai figure: Adonai sits at God’s right hand, in the position of highest authority, and mediates God’s rule. Adonai is commissioned to rule in the midst of his enemies (Psalm 110:2). Adonai is “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalm 110:4). Adonai “will shatter kings on the day of his wrath” and “execute judgment among the nations” (Psalm 110:5). Adonai is a divine figure who rules at Yahweh’s pleasure. All this, of course, is the second indicator in our passage that the man Jesus is not a mere man, but is also divine. Jesus has been seated on the throne of highest authority and rules on Yahweh’s behalf. In due course, all of Jesus’ enemies will be subdued.

The conclusion of Peter’s message

Peter gives us the conclusion of the matter in verse 36: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” You crucified Jesus. You made him out to be a criminal, a troublemaker, a liar. In fact, however, Jesus is the real deal, the Holy One, the promised Messiah, the Victor over death, the true heir to David’s throne, the Mediator who pours out the Holy Spirit on His people. God is preeminently pleased with Jesus and has installed Him into the office of sovereign Ruler and messianic King.

Peter had begun in verse 22 with God working through Jesus in His earthly ministry. But verses 33-36 conclude with God working through Jesus in His heavenly ministry, and now from heaven He reigns, now from heaven He reigns until all of His enemies are subdued, now from heaven He reigns to bestow His Spirit upon all who trust Him. Will you trust Him? Or will you continue to function as one of His enemies?

HOW WILL YOU RESPOND TO THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS? (v. 37-41)

Verses 22-36 tell us the truth about Jesus. Now verses 37-41 invite us to consider how we will respond to this truth about Jesus.

Before pressing in here, I want to call your attention to something very obvious, but very important. Sometimes in our impatience and excessive concern about efficiency, we desire to skip details and get right to the bottom line. When we do that, we forget that God is in the details, all of them, and they all matter. Certainly here in Acts 2 it is remarkable that the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:2-4 followed by those first disciples proclaiming God’s message in the native languages of the people in the audience, prompts them to ask, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:12) Peter unpacks what this means by referring to five verses from the Old Testament Book of Joel (v. 17-21), four verses from Psalm 16 (v. 25-28), one verse from Psalm 110 (v. 34-35), and beyond that he refers to the predetermined plan of God (in v. 23) which reminds us of other Old Testament passages, and he refers to the oath that God swore to David (in v. 30) which calls attention to still other Old Testament passages. Here’s the point: don’t expect to rightly and deeply understand the story of Jesus apart from the Old Testament. God gave us the Old Testament, God gave us the promises and prophecies and previews and illustrative pictures in the Old Testament, in order to prepare us for the day that Jesus finally came, so that we would recognize Him and rightly understand Him and who He is and what He came to do.

And now, the weight of who Jesus is, is impressing itself upon the people listening to Peter, and they are “cut to the heart”. You ought to be “cut to the heart” when you are at odds with God. There is God’s way and your own way; there is God’s plan of salvation and your own path to destruction; there is God’s Messiah who died and rose again and reigns at the Father’s right hand, and there is your own sinful heart that has rejected Him, belittled Him, suppressed the truth about Him, and sought to escape from His penetrating gaze. All of us are sinners. And sin, in its most fundamental sense, is high treason against Almighty God: in our sinful rebellion, we don’t want God to reign over us, instead we want to be our own gods, our own lords, our own saviors. So we attempt to overthrow God from governing our lives, and we set up our own self-rule in its place. It never ends well. And in the moment of realization that you are an enemy of God, as indeed these people were, you might be tempted to conclude that it’s ‘game over’. That’s what the traitor Judas had thought, which is why he went and hanged himself. But you needn’t throw in the towel like Judas did. And so, these dear and troubled people had the good sense to ask, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

How people should respond to the truth about Jesus

Peter tells them in verses 38-39:

“And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is of you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”” (v. 38-39)

Let’s walk through this instruction. As I go through it one part at a time, I’ll highlight Peter’s words in bold font.

“Repent”. Change your mind, and turn in a new direction. Specifically, change your mind about Jesus, and turn to Jesus. These people had a low view of Jesus, thinking that he was a troublemaker and thinking that it had been right for them to reject Him and have Him executed. But now they realize that they were profoundly wrong. Instead, Jesus is the God-approved Ruler and the God-approved Mediator of divine blessing. Psalm 2 describes how God’s Messiah was rejected by men, but that God installed His Messiah as King anyway. At the end of Psalm 2, the Messiah is referred to as the Son: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” (Psalm 2:12)

Remember what I said near the beginning: those 1^st century Jews had thought that their Messiah would make their present life, their physical life, their financial life, their national political life, much, much better. They thought that their Messiah would usher in a new golden age for the nation of Israel, that Israel would be set free from its bondage to the power of Rome. And if this Messiah could produce miraculous signs and wonders on demand, leveraging the power of God for their earthly good, so much the better. When people today are operating in a fleshly, sinful, this-worldly mindset, they want today the very same things that the 1^st century Jews desired. But Jesus didn’t come to give you your best life now, understood in selfish and earthly terms. He didn’t come to save you from your earthly enemies. He came to save you from you, from your sin, and from God’s judgment that is upon you for your sin. He came to save you from sin and death, and to bring you into life-giving, heart-transforming fellowship with the living God. Jesus isn’t some nice little inspiring moral example for you to consult if you feel like it. He is Lord. Jesus isn’t one possible way by which to connect to the divine. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6) – that's what Jesus said in John 14:6, and you should believe Him because God raised Him from the dead!

And so, you are faced with a choice. On the one hand, you can continue in your unbelief and rebellion, but you need to understand that if you do that, you will “perish in the way” and suffer God’s judgment upon you. On the other hand, you can humbly bow down before God’s Son and entrust yourself to His sovereign care: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

“[And] be baptized every one of you”. Although the call to repentance is a call to change your mind, a call to change your allegiance, a call to make a radical shift from self-rule to Christ-rule, the clear expectation is that you go public with your repentance. The summons to “be baptized” is in fact a summons to the waters, a summons to publicly identify with Jesus by being immersed into water. Of course, there is nothing magical about the waters; the simple fact of the matter is that baptism into water is God’s appointed way for New Testament believers to publicize their repentance, to profess their faith. And the whole point of this baptism is that it is a concrete way to demonstrate that you are now believing in and identifying with Jesus: “and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ”.

The third indication that Jesus is divine

Earlier I said that there are at least three indicators in our passage that Jesus is not a mere man, but is in fact divine. So far I’ve only given you two indicators, but now we come to the third indicator. It says in verse 21: “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” In the Hebrew text that Peter is quoting, it says: “everyone who calls upon the name of the LORD [Yahweh] shall be saved”. But in Acts 2:38, whose name are the people supposed to look unto and call upon? “[The] name of Jesus Christ”. To call upon Jesus Christ is to call upon Yahweh, for Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us, Yahweh in the flesh.

It is a remarkable thing that Yahweh God is willing to forgive everyone who has committed high treason against Him, if only they turn to Him now: “be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins”. Because of Jesus’ atoning death upon the cross, you can be forgiven of all your sins; you can be washed clean and receive a fresh start; you can be rightly related to God and justified in His sight; you can be accepted into God’s forever family, not because of any works that you have done, but according to His mercy. Only come to Him. Only trust Him. Only be washed in the blood of the Lamb.

“[And] you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The same Holy Spirit who was poured out on those 120 disciples at the beginning Acts 2, will also be bestowed upon anyone else who believes in Jesus. God’s promise to pour out His Spirit on His people will include you, if you turn to Him and trust in Jesus.

“For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off”. What promise? Quite clearly in the context of this passage, “the promise” is “the gift of the Holy Spirit”. This is what Jesus promised in Acts 1 (verses 4-8), where the Holy Spirit is called “the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). This is what God promised through the prophet Joel, which Peter highlighted in Acts 2:17-18. Jesus Himself “received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:33), which He then poured out upon others. And in terms of verse 38, the one undisputable promise in verse 38 is the promise regarding the Spirit: “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Of course, the promise of the Holy Spirit necessarily calls to mind the larger Old Testament context, in which the gift of the Spirit is given to a cleansed and renewed Israel, a new covenant community that doesn’t live by the letter of an external law, but is transformed from within by the Holy Spirit and as a result bears good fruit for the glory of God. It is through the Holy Spirit that human beings have genuine communion with the living God: those who have the Holy Spirit are in right relationship with God, and He is actively at work in and through their lives, and as a result they are able to understand and apply biblical truth.

This promise regarding the Spirit is given to all people, with an important qualifier. But first, Peter casts a wide net. “[The] promise is for you”: the Jewish people who are standing before Peter and listening to him in real time. The promise is “for your children”: the children/descendants of the Jewish people who are standing before Peter. The promise is “for all who are far off”, which probably refers to the Jews who were then still scattered around the world. And that’s because this first sermon is preached specifically to the house of Israel (v. 22, 36): the new covenant community begins with the remnant of Israelites who believe the gospel. But the same message will soon be extended to Gentiles, and so the message and promise truly are applicable to all people, including you and me.

At the end of verse 39, Peter adds an important qualifier: “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” If you think about this audience in Acts or any audience hearing the gospel anywhere in the world, the truth is that although the gospel is proclaimed to all of you, only some of you receive it; although the gospel is proclaimed to all of your children, only some of them receive it; although the gospel is proclaimed to all who are far off, only some of them receive it. Why so? Because only those “whom the Lord our God calls to himself” will actually hear the promise with ears of faith and come to Jesus.

The end of Acts 2:39 echoes Joel 2:32. Peter had quoted part of Joel 2:32 back in Acts 2:21. But listen to all of Joel 2:32 – “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.” (Joel 2:32) And that seems to be the logic of Peter’s statement in Acts 2:39 – among you shall be those whom the Lord calls, among your children shall be those whom the Lord calls, among those who are far off shall be those whom the Lord calls. How do you know if the Lord our God is calling you to Himself? Well, it’s not rocket science, and you don’t need to ascend into the heavens. If you are cut to the heart, and you hear God’s promise of salvation with conviction and urgency and strong desire, and you are compelled to come and follow Jesus, then the Lord is calling you to Himself.

Three thousand people turn to Jesus

Verses 38-39 capture the core message that Peter gave to the people after they asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” But Peter spoke to them at much greater length, as verse 40 indicates: “And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”” Listen: Don’t we swept away in the judgment that is coming on every other sinner, but walk away from that sin, and walk to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Three thousand people did so, as verse 41 tells us. They received the Word. The trusted in Jesus. They were baptized. They became part of God’s new covenant community. And next week, we will see the profound, transforming work that took place in their lives.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles (The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009.

Patrick Schreiner, Acts (Christian Standard Commentary). Holman Reference, 2022.

Ben Witherington III, The Acts of the Apostles: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.