Acts 2:22-32 - David's Prophecy

Going to the store the day after Easter you discover something amazing and wonderful. All the candy and decorations that have been up for Easter are now marked down to ½ price. Can you believe that? The Easter candy goes down in value as soon as Easter is over. Some stores even begin to lower the price on Easter merchandise before Easter, hoping to get people to buy last minute Easter things that they wouldn’t buy otherwise. But here’s the question for you to consider on this 1^st Sunday after Easter: does the value of Easter itself diminish? I saw a community together last Sunday that celebrated the risen Lord in a special way. I found myself filled with joy. It was amazing seeing all these families together and singing praises to our risen Lord together. It was a time of celebration and joy, a time to thank God for what he has done for us. Is there any less joy exuding from our faces today than on Easter itself? Should there be? Is there any less reason for us to be sitting here this morning in comparison to sitting in the same seats on Easter Sunday? No. The true substance that gives Easter its meaning, Jesus’ resurrection, never diminishes in its value for us as believers. It doesn’t take a hiatus for the 364 other days or the 51 other Sundays in the year. Each day, each Sunday is a reminder of the joy that Christ brings through his resurrection. So let us come together today as we learn from Jesus’ word, and let us remember that we are still an Easter people, people focused on and changed by the resurrection of our Lord.

I. Peter’s Sermon

The scripture that we read this morning is the first sermon that Peter preached after receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. He began the sermon with an explanation to the people gathered, that he and the other disciples are not drunk or doing anything weird, rather that they are filled with the Holy Spirit. This happens in verses 14 through 21. He then gets into the meat of his sermon, which we read this morning. And doing so, he does a couple things. You notice that he quoted scripture, specifically one of David’s psalms. But he also talks about the only thing that is really worth preaching about. He talks about Jesus and he talks about Jesus’ resurrection. Peter’s first sermon is an Easter sermon. Peter’s first message is about the joy of the resurrection. And Peter has something important to say about the resurrection.

Peter begins by telling the people about the Jesus they knew: a man who did miracles, wonders and signs. He didn’t start with the resurrected Jesus, he didn’t start with the fact that Jesus was God. No, he started where the people were, he started with the people’s own experience. He reminded them of the teacher that they had seen or heard about, traveling through Galilee, who was doing miracles, wonders and signs. Peter reminded the people that these miracles, wonders and signs show that God was active in this Jesus they had seen, that God was doing something through this Jesus they had heard about.

But then Peter needs to remind them of the bad part of the story: that Jesus was put to death on a cross. And Peter reminds the people listening that they were involved in this, that they are partly responsible. But he also makes it clear that Jesus’ trip to the cross is not only something that they are responsible for, it is something that God knew about and allowed… for it led to something great.

And here is where we hear the Easter message that we celebrated last week. “God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

Peter’s message here is so very simple. Jesus is stronger than death. Peter didn’t feel the need to get into the deep theology of what Jesus did for us on the cross. He doesn’t even spend time talking about the fact that our sins are forgiven because of what happened on the cross. These are important things to know, but they aren’t the point of Peter’s message here. Instead, Peter focuses on the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. God showed that Jesus was special by working through him to do miracles, signs and wonders. God shows that Jesus is unique by raising him from the dead. And Peter needed to show that Jesus rising from the dead is in line with what these people were looking for from their Messiah. And so he talks about a prophecy from our good friend, King David.

II. David’s Prophecy

What Peter refers to as a prophecy of David is actually a psalm that David wrote talking about God’s faithfulness. David is talking about how God continues to be with him no matter what he is going through. David talks about the Lord always being before him and because of this David knows he will not be shaken. David talks about the fact that God will not even forsake him when he dies. He can rest in hope because he knows that God will not abandon him to the realm of death.

David, when he wrote this Psalm, probably was talking about the hope that he saw in having a God who loved him and cared for him and who had not abandoned him and would not abandon him. But Peter sees something much greater in this Psalm, for he knows that Jesus is a descendant of David and Jesus is living out this Psalm in a special way. David is still the one whose body can rest in hope and he can know that he will not be abandoned to the realm of the dead. The reason for this is that God’s holy one, Jesus, the Messiah, will not see decay. Jesus, the Messiah, will be raised from the dead. Peter witnessed the fulfillment of this prophecy himself. He saw David’s descendant raised from the dead. He saw that decay did not overcome Jesus. He saw that Jesus was the Messiah that God had sent to save God’s people.

David’s prophecy has been fulfilled, a prophecy that I’m not sure that David even knew he was making. His prophecy pointed towards Jesus, the Messiah, the one who would rise from the dead and therefore offer salvation and victory over death for us all and for all who turn to God. David could find hope in such a promise. We can definitely find hope in the fulfillment of such a promise.

III. Our Response

A little past what we read this morning in scripture, it comes to the point where the people responded to Peter’s sermon. And, oh, I wish I could get responses like this to my sermons. We are told that when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter, “What shall we do?” They knew that it wasn’t enough just to hear the gospel message, to hear that Jesus had risen from the dead in accordance with scripture. They knew they needed to respond. Perhaps the reason the message cut them so hard is that it is the first time they heard it. And perhaps it was the fact that the Holy Spirit was speaking so clearly through Peter. Either way, they knew that they needed to act; they knew that they needed to do something.

And the something that Peter called them to do is the same something that we are called to do. He told them to repent and be baptized. He told them to save themselves from this corrupt generation. He told them to turn to God for the forgiveness of their sins. And we are told that about 3000 were converted to the faith on that day.

This is something that makes the resurrection all the more real to me. This is something that helps me to realize that I need not be a skeptic. People in Jesus’ day were skeptics. We are told that the religious leaders spread a rumor that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body. Your automatic response to hearing that someone was raised from the dead would be to disbelieve them. And it would take an amazing speaker to convince you otherwise. Yet Peter was a mere fisherman who ran away when the going got tough. It is clear that something special happened at the resurrection, something that changed Peter. Here is the man who denied even knowing who Jesus was on the night of the crucifixion now standing in front of crowds and sharing the good news that Jesus had risen from the dead. And here are 3000 people coming to a saving knowledge of that same Jesus and turning their lives around. Something happened that Easter morning, otherwise we would never see this amazing change in Peter. Something happened that Easter morning, otherwise we would never see these 3000 people change their lives. Something happened that Easter morning, otherwise we would have no need to see change in our lives.

The Easter message isn’t just about seeing something that happened in the past. It called for a change in the lives of the people who heard about it then, it calls for a change in our lives. What does it mean to you that God’s love is greater than death? How does it change the way you live?

Many of us have repented, most of us are baptized. But this isn’t the end of our response to the glorious message of Easter. It isn’t just something that you do once and then go on and live the rest of your life the way you have been. Peter is calling for something deeper, something much more profound.

Living as a believer, living as a follower of the resurrected Jesus means that he is your Lord. It means that your priorities are changed. We all have those lists of priorities, those lists of the things that are important to us, that help us decide how we are going to spend our time and energy. On the top of that list, in differing orders, usually lie our families, ourselves, our God, our work, our church (which is not the same as God), our friends. You may have other priorities that are also near the top of that list.

Neither Peter nor anyone in the Bible try to tell us exactly what order that list should take. It will be slightly different for all of us. But they all are sure of one thing; God should truly be at the top of that list; above yourself, above your family, above your church or your friends or your job.

This is what Peter is calling for all God’s followers to do. This is what God desires from each of us. Are you ready to put him first? Are you ready to let him take that first spot on your priority list? Are you ready to give yourself fully to him? Are you ready to have your priorities changed in the same way that Peter did, as the 3000 did? It is oh so simple. Give yourself fully to him, re-arrange your priorities, let his resurrection matter. Don’t think of Easter as something that we celebrate once a year and then goes to the discount rack. Instead, allow yourself to celebrate Easter each and every day, remembering that Jesus rose from the dead and that changes everything. Amen.