As you heard a few moments ago, Second Kings begins with a wonderful little anecdote about Elijah.
The King of Samaria, a man named Ahaziah, had been injured in an household accident.
Anyway, after his doctors told him that the prognosis didn’t look very good for his recovery,
He sent a messenger to the demon god of Ekron, to find out for sure.
I don’t know if he was bird-watching, sun-bathing or meditating on the magnificence of the Lord.
“If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty.”
And it came to pass.
The same kind of conversation, with even more arrogance, ended in the same death and destruction.
But he sent out another posse to arrest the elderly prophet of God.
Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.”
As I was reading Acts 5 again the other day that little Old Testament story came to my mind.
The Jewish leadership was mortally wounded, but they wouldn’t kiss the son in accord to Psalm 1.
They were certainly as rebellious as the most wicked of the Samaritan kings had even been.
They wanted to send an army to arrest the prophets of God, but they knew that they’d have a bloody disaster on their hands,
So the captain of the temple politely asked the disciples to meet with the priests in their chambers.
“And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
And, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.”
“The best defense is a good offense.”
Don’t give the other army even the slighted advantage; keep pushing them back.
After reminding the High Priest that they were responsible to God before being responsible to them,
And we intend to make sure that he is forever LIFTED UP before men.
This is talking about the Lord Jesus’ resurrection from the grave isn’t it?
Seventy-two hours after the Saviour’s sacrifice for sin, the Father raised him from death.
This was the number one theme of the Apostles during the early months of Christian history.
Acts 3: – “The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
Acts 10: – “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. We are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, & in Jerusalem; whom they slew & hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, & shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.”
I could multiply these scriptures ten-fold.
But that was not what Peter was saying to the Sanhedrin right here.
Not that this is extremely important, but this verse doesn’t say:
It says, “God raised up Jesus, Whom you then slew.”
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given” – the Son, the Son of God.
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”
In the eternal decrees of God, the Second Person of the Trinity became incarnate and walked among us.
And “He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin.”
We now have an High Priest who was touched with our feelings and as a result. can minister to our needs.
So it wasn’t “by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
He was the “Anointed One” whom the nation was supposed to be expecting.
And when he referred to “the fathers,” and the “God of our fathers,” He essentially said that he and the other disciples were not worshiping some false god or self-proclaimed Messiah.
Christ Jesus is at the heart of the Old Testament religion, the expectation of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
After the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate Peter declared.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
First, sad as it may be, that crucifixion was necessary for the sinner’s salvation – for my salvation.
Leviticus 17:11 says: – “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”
If Jesus had not gone to the cross there would be no hope for any of beyond his life.
So I don’t believe that anyone should angrily point their finger at a Jew for killing Christ.
Yes, I know that Roman soldiers did the bloody part of the job.
But it was at the insistence of the Jewish priests and the screams of the Jewish mob.
They weren’t Romans or Christians who were shouting, “Crucify him, crucify him.”
And when Pilate expressed his desire to release Christ, the Jews insisted that He put to death:
“When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”
They had already brought Jesus’ blood upon themselves at the judgment seat of Pilate.
Notice what Peter called the cross: “a tree.”
I’m not going to get into the debate about the shape of the object upon which Jesus was crucified.
There are others who think that it was just a solitary stake.
Suffice it to say that I have done my best to study the subject,
And I am convinced that it was a cross as we generally picture it.
Of what was the cross made?
But the Bible doesn’t say that it was an old palm tree growing on the top of Golgotha.
“If a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, And thou hang him on a tree: his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, But thou shalt … bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) That thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.”
The Jews didn’t use crucifixions to execute people.
The atrocity of the crucifixion was an innovation of the Romans, not the Jews.
“He that is hanged is accursed of God.”
The Apostles knew of this law and it’s special significance,
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:
For it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”
When they urged the Romans to crucify the Lord Jesus.
Although they didn’t want their special sabbath to be polluted by exposed bodies hanging from crosses,
They were not bashful about the curse and stigma that they put upon Jesus by seeing him hung from tree.
It doesn’t really matter whether the Jews believed this or not,
But Peter told them again, that not only was Christ raised from the dead, but He was received into Glory.
He didn’t say that Jesus was exalted TO the right hand of the Father, although that is true.
Peter said that he was exalted BY the right hand of God.
By “right hand,” he was referring to the strength of the Lord.
But the thing that Peter was trying to emphasize was the Lord Jesus’ new office and ministry.
A few minutes ago I quoted part of Isaiah 9:6: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.”
Isaiah goes on with a very important statement about the Lord Jesus:
“And the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”
While the Lord Jesus was ministering here on earth for those few short years,
He was not lecturing like a college professor, or even as a gospel preacher.
Christ was speaking with authority about a subject that was not clearly seen in the Old Testament.
He was speaking with authority about the Kingdom of Heaven, because He is the King of the Kingdom.
He may be at the right hand of the Father in Heaven today, but soon he will be sitting upon the throne of his earthly ancestor David, ruling over all the kingdoms of the world.
Today He holds court in the hearts of thousands of His subjects around the world,
And He is also the Saviour.
At the time of His birth the announcement was made: “For unto yo born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”
He Himself said, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
“And this is a faithful saying, worthy of acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
What is this all about?
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
By administering repentance and forgiveness.
When Peter spoke the words of Acts 5, there were still a few things that he had to learn.
The blessing of the gospel has been extended to non-Jews like us.
And this was one of the problems that those people faced.
And as recipients of the Law of Moses, they somehow pictured themselves above the law.
Just as the Lord Jesus said to one of their number in John 3: “Ye must be born again.”
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Christ Jesus has been exalted and crowned prince and Saviour, to bestow repentance and forgiveness.
There are people who think that they are too good to need “forgiveness.”
They feel that their sins are not sinful and they are as good as gold, if not actually as good as God.
But again, the Bible positively declares that the idea is totally false.
And in him alone “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” – Ephesians 1:7.
And this verse just as clearly declares that REPENTANCE is just as much a gift.
The hearts of these Jewish leaders were so twisted that there was no way that they could ever repent.
In fact that is true of all men everywhere.
Only a miracle could make rebels like these people bow before Christ Whom they hate so much.
Repentance is a part of that miracle;
It is a gift of God, just as II Timothy 2:25 declares
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”
They had hung-up on the cross.
But God then set him up as the Saviour-King.
whom God hath given to them that obey him.”
This is what we are doing here this morning: iterating, reiterating and magnifying the truth about Christ.
Just as we said last week – “Ye must be born again.”
As Paul said in Hebrews 2:
“Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?”
“And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them,
And, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.”
It is only through the shed blood of Christ that we can be cleanse from the guilt of our sins.
There is no way to be redeemed except “with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
“The blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
These men and all of us here today:
If you have not already, you need to seek God’s forgiveness and repentance.
Pray for repentance and repent while you pray.
“Ye must be born again.”
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”