The King of the World
‘But 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’ Acts 2:24
Peter’s Pentecost message has two great themes: firstly, the last days have begun because of the outpouring of the Spirit upon all who put their trust in Jesus (Acts 2:14-21); and secondly, by raising Him from the dead, God has declared Jesus the true son and heir of king David, and so the rightful king of Israel and so the world (Acts 2:22-35).
Peter quotes Psalm 16:8-11 to his Pentecost audience. David here speaks of one who dies but is not left in a state of “death.” Instead they come through death into God’s presence without experiencing the decay of the body. Peter points out that this wasn’t David’s personal experience. He died and his body decayed. So, Peter goes on, the one who passes through death without decay must be the “Lord” David refers to in the Psalm (Psalm 16:8).
This “Lord” is Jesus. ‘Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact’ (Acts 2:31,32). No wonder the resurrection of Jesus was such a prominent theme in the early church’s preaching.
Peter then brings together his two themes of the last days having begun, and Jesus’ resurrection, in Acts 2:33 ‘Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has poured out what you now see and hear.’ Because Jesus has been exalted to God’s right hand (as Daniel 7 describes), He is able to pour out the Holy Spirit and so begin the ‘last days.’
Why does Peter then describe Jesus as both ‘Lord and Christ’ (Acts 2:36)? In Psalm 110:1 (quoted by Peter in the preceding verse, Acts 2:35) David wrote ‘The Lord said to my Lord: sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ David speaks of God speaking to one who was ‘Lord’ over himself. The Jews believed this to be a reference to the king of the world. Any ‘king’ over Israel’s greatest king was the king of the universe.
The early church would return to Psalm 110:1 over and over in preaching. Their Jesus had been raised from the dead. Not only was He the one David spoke of as standing in God’s presence without bodily decay, He was the King over king David himself – He was the ultimate and final king of the world.
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