Acts 2 records the birthday of the church on the day of Pentecost. Pentecost was a holy feast observed fifty days after Passover. During Passover, Jesus was betrayed, condemned, and crucified. The pilgrims left Jerusalem with rumors swirling that his body was missing. Pentecost was the next time Jerusalem was filled with worshipers. There were now credible claims that Jesus had risen from the dead. 

On the day of Pentecost, the sound of a hurricane rocked the city. Crowds gathered at the epicenter of the sound, where 120 disciples of Jesus had been in prayer. This international crowd was amazed when these Galileans started praising God in languages they had never learned. Without a reasonable explanation for what they saw and heard, they concluded the disciples were drunk. Then Peter addressed the crowd.

 Peter was the most devoted, courageous, and outspoken disciple of Jesus. During the Last Supper, Peter was incredulous when Jesus predicted one of the disciples would betray him. “They may forsake you, but not me,” Peter replied. “I will die with you.” Before the rooster crowed, Peter denied Jesus three times. After the death, burial, and resurrection, angels sent women to tell the disciples – and Peter – to meet Jesus in Galilee. Transforming grace restored Peter. Peter preached the first gospel message. Christianity is a religion of new beginnings. 

No rut so deep that you can't leave it
No dream so lost you can't retrieve it 
No pain so great you can't endure it 
No sin so bad that God can't cure it

Acts 2:14-36 records Peter’s message. Verse 36 states the point of the message: “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 will never witness or preach to a more hostile audience than the crowd Peter addressed at Pentecost. Weeks earlier, they were so offended by the messianic claims of Jesus that when permitted to release a prisoner during Passover, they chose a domestic terrorist named Barabbas instead of Jesus. Without a doubt, some in that crowd at Pentecost had chanted, “Crucify him!” at Passover. Yet Peter boldly declared that this crucified Jesus is Christ and Lord.

In Acts 2:22-24, Peter called an expert witness to the stand. God has testified that Jesus is Christ and Lord. How did God testify about Jesus?

God Affirmed the Life of Jesus.

Acts 2:22 says, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth…” The subject of Peter’s sermon is Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus was a common name. A surname related to one’s father or hometown distinguished one from another. They referred to Jesus after the town in which he grew up. This was more than a way to distinguish Jesus from others. It expressed the unbelieving crowd’s conclusion about Jesus. To them, he was just another guy from Nazareth. He was a wise teacher, a great prophet, a miracle worker. He was not the Messiah-King, much less the Son of God. He was just “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Verse 22 confirms the identity of Jesus: “Men of Israel, hear the 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.”“Attested” means “to show off.” It is to approve or accredit. This is what God did in and through the life of Jesus. God put Jesus on display supernaturally: “with mighty works and wonders and signs.” “Mighty works” are the divine source of Jesus’ miracles. In John 3:2, Nicodemus said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” “Wonders” are the human response to Jesus’ miracles. In Mark 4:41, Jesus’ disciples ask, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” “Signs” are the spiritual intent of Jesus’ miracles. The miracles of Jesus signified the identity of Jesus. What he did revealed who he was.

Jesus was the God-Man – truly God, truly man. God affirms Jesus with mighty works, wonders, and signs. The miracles of Jesus affirm his humanity and deity at the same time. 

• As a man, Jesus accepted an invitation to attend a wedding a Cana. As God, Jesus suspended the rules of nature and turned water into wine. 
• As a man, Jesus took a nap as he traveled across the sea with his disciples. As God, he commanded the winds to be quiet and the waves to lie down. 
• As a man, Jesus wept at the graveside of his friend Lazarus. As God, he told the grieving family to open the tomb and told the dead Lazarus to come forth.  

The miracles of Jesus were God showing off his Son. Peter does not give Jesus credit for his miracles. Verse 22 says he was “a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him.”

The Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. displays a leather-bound book in which Thomas Jefferson pasted the passages from the Gospels that contain no miracles. It was the Bible Jefferson read at the end of his life with Jesus the teacher, not the miracle worker. Christianity does not work that way. To believe in Jesus is to believe God affirmed Jesus with mighty works, wonders, and signs. 

John Gerstner explains: “The miracles as such do not directly prove Jesus to be the Son of God; this power could have been given to him as a mere man. But indirectly they prove him to be the Son of God because they prove him to be a truthful messenger, and this truthful messenger says he is God.”

Verse 22 states a fact the unbelieving crowd acknowledged: “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.” No one denied that Jesus performed miracles. There was debate about the source of his power. Jealous religious leaders claimed he was of the devil. But the people accepted that God did mighty works through Jesus. Yet they did not believe Jesus was Christ and Lord. Seeing miracles does not produce saving faith. 

Luke 16:19-31 is the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. The rich man died, went to hell, and requested that Lazarus be sent to warn his five brothers. Luke 16:29 says, “But Abraham says, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’” The rich man insisted they would believe if someone rose from the dead. Verse 31 answers: “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus bear witness to the truth of this parable. Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

God Planned the Death of Jesus.

The miracles of Jesus caused many to initially believe Jesus to be the promised Messiah-King. But Jesus did not live up to the popular expectations about what the Messiah would be and do. They wanted a military hero to overthrow Rome, establish Jerusalem as his capital, and bring economic prosperity. Although Jesus displayed supernatural power, he did not lead a revolution to drive the Romans out. His ministry ended tragically with Jesus being betrayed into enemy hands by one of his followers. The remaining disciples scattered. The Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death for blasphemy and turned him over to the Romans to be crucified. 

1 Corinthians 1:23 calls the crucifixion of Jesus “a stumbling block to the Jews.” How can Jesus be Christ and Lord if he died on a cross? Peter answers in Acts 2:23: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” 

This is the best answer to the question: Who killed Jesus? Some claim the Jews killed Jesus for being a religious nonconformist who blasphemed God with his words and works. Others claim the Romans killed Jesus for being a political nuisance who created an insurgency in the occupied territory of Palestine. Peter looked beyond the human elements at work in the death of Jesus and declared: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.” Two truths run parallel like train tracks through the Bible. 

• Try to make these tracks intersect, and destruction will follow. 
• Follow these tracks by faith, and they will lead you to glory. 

The two truths are divine sovereignty and human free will. The Bible teaches God’s exhaustive and unimpeachable authority over everything. It also teaches that God has created us as free moral agents who choose between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and error. Both realities were at work in the death of Jesus.

The crucifixion was a sovereign act of God. Verse 23 says, “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” Jesus was betrayed, arrested, condemned, beaten, and crucified because he was “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.” God delivered Jesus up by eternal decree. God had a plan of salvation before Adam and Eve fell into sin. The crucifixion was also a sinful act of man. Verse 23 does not let the audience off the hook: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed and crucified by the hands of lawless men.”

Historians debate whether the Jews or the Romans murdered Jesus. Peter indicts both groups. The Jews killed and crucified Jesus by the Romans’ lawless hands. The real issue is what killed Jesus, not who. Sin put Jesus on the cross. You and I are guilty of the death of Jesus. Yet God was behind it all. The death of Jesus was man at his worst, but God at his best. According to his definite plan and foreknowledge, God delivered Jesus up to be crucified by lawless men so that his blood would atone for our sins.

A boy was turning the pages in a book of religious art. When he came across a picture of the crucifixion, he said, “If God had been there, he wouldn’t have let them do that!” God was there! 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

God Raised Jesus from the Dead.

A Christian program was playing on the radio as I drove home. I was listening and not listening at the same time. My attention was arrested when the program was interrupted by breaking news. A reporter announced that the body of Jesus had been found. And he explained how this archeological discovery of the remains of Jesus created political, economic, and social chaos. I pulled over, consumed by what I was hearing. Then the reporter’s tone softened. And he explained that the scenario he described was the premise of a new book by Paul Maier, entitled A Skeleton in God’s Closet. My curiosity was piqued. To my surprise, I experienced a personal revival reading that book, as it impressed upon me the significance of the resurrection of Jesus in a new and powerful way. 

There are no skeletons in God’s closet! 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” These are the first principles of the gospel of Christ: 

• Jesus lived a righteous life.  
• Jesus died on the cross for our sins. 
• Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. 

This is the hope of our salvation. John Irving said, “Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection you’re not a believer.”

Acts 2:24 declares, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” We often say Jesus got up. The New Testament consistently says, “God raised him up.”This is not a difference without a distinction. The crucifixion and resurrection are inextricably tied together. God planned the death of Jesus. How do we know the cross fulfilled God’s redemptive plans? God raised him up. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s stamp of approval on the death of Jesus. John 19:30 says, “It is finished.” The empty tomb is the receipt God issues to verify that Jesus paid it all. 

Verse 24 says, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death.” “Pangs” is the pain of childbirth. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, death entered the world. But God never intended for death to have the last word. In Christ, death is not the end of life. It is the birth canal through which we enter eternal life. Death died when Christ rose. 

Think about it. Jesus was almost beaten to death before the crucifixion. He died a slow, agonizing death by suffocation on the cross. They put grave clothes on him. He was placed in a tomb, and a stone was placed over its mouth that took ten men to move. The Romans placed their seal on the tomb. They placed armed guards around the tomb in case the disciples tried to steal the body. 

 You would think these facts would make it impossible for Jesus to rise from the dead. Verse 24 says, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”  When Death finished his work on the cross, he turned Jesus over to the Grave and told him to hold on to Jesus. Death said, “You gave me Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I still have them. I can hold Jesus.” Early Sunday morning, God raised Jesus from the dead. An angel rolled the stone away and sat on it. Luke 24:5-6 says, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but he has risen.” This is the good news: 

• The Word of God became flesh. 
• The Son of God became a human. 
• The Lord of all became a servant. 
• The Righteous One was made sin. 
• The Eternal One tasted death. 
• The crucified One rose again. 
• The Seated One is coming back. 

Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”