Peter's Sermon: the Appeal and Results

Acts 2:37-42

The question that is posed by the message this morning dealing from Acts 2:37 through the beginning of 42, is the question how is a man to be saved?  By what act?  By what method?  Through what person?  What is the operation?  What is the channel of salvation.  You know there have been saviors since the year once.  There have always been those who were going to save the world and redeem man from all of his trials and problems and so forth and there are endless, endless solutions offered to man's problem.  But still the question goes on, how is a man to be saved.  How is a man to come into a knowledge that he is secure both for time and eternity?  That there is a life of bliss not only here, but there wherever that there may be. 

Biblically, the question comes repeatedly.  How can I enter the kingdom?  How can I be saved?  What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?  And there are answers coming from all over the place with the scriptures as a reference.  For example, the legalist says keep the law, that's how to be saved.  The moralist says have your goodies outweigh your badies.  And God's got scales.  The racist says be one of God's chosen people.  The universalist says don't sweat it, we'll all get in in the end.  The ritualist says you've got to do the right ritual.  Follow the right forms.  And the strange part is that they all isolate scripture to prove their point.  The legalist for example may quote from James 2:21, which says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works."  However, he will avoid Romans 3:20 which says "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified."

The moralist comes along and quotes from John 5:29, "They that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation, therefore it all depends on what you've done good or evil."  He will avoid Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, "For by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."

The racist may quote Romans 11:26 that says, "So all Israel shall be saved."  And carefully avoid Romans 9:6 which says, "For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.  The universalist will select Romans 5:18, "Therefore as by the offense of one," Adam, "judgment came upon all men so by the righteous of one," Jesus Christ, "the free gift came upon all men."  And he will say it's the same all men.  Therefore all men will be saved.  And he will carefully avoid Matthew 7:13-14 which says, "There is a broad road that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in there at."

The ritualist will invariably find the scripture that accommodates his ritual.  And one of the dominate things in theology today is ritualistic baptism.  There are some people who believe you're saved by water.  Others would say it's a combination of faith plus H2O, but basically it comes down to the same thing.  And invariably for proof text, they will find their way to Acts Chapter 2, verse 38, which is in the context of what we're going to say.  And they will rejoice exceedingly over repent and be baptized.  Assuming that those are the two things that bring about salvation.  Without either one, salvation is impossible.  They will carefully avoid Romans 10:9-10, which says, that "You're saved when you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart."  And there's no water in Romans 10:9-10.

So it's very interesting, and incidentally, you can prove anything by the Bible if you're sure to take it out of context.  And it's being done constantly.  All of the people who espoused false doctrine from scripture do that.  That's why you have to compare the scripture with the scripture so that you be sure you're accurate.  Now that makes this passage important because it is one that is used by ritualists to defend the baptismal regeneration viewpoint that to be saved you've got to be baptized.  That salvation is not simply by faith.  It's by faith and baptism in water.  But there's much more to this passage than that, but that alone would be enough for us to study it so we would have an answer adequate to that problem.

Now in this passage, of course, we're dealing with the wrap up of Peter's sermon.  And it's a very, very important thing to look at what happens in response to Peter's preaching, because we're gaining real principles here for our own witness, for our own evangelism, for our own preaching.  Now let me paint the scene for you by way of review, especially for you who have not been here for some time or at all.  We're studying the book of Acts and we've learned several things.  From our study of John, we learn that Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to equip the church to finish what He didn't finish.

And on the day of Pentecost, beginning at the very first verse of Acts 2, the Spirit of God came.  The Spirit of God then baptized all of those disciples gathered there in Jerusalem into the body of Christ indwelt all of them, then filled them with the Spirit.  In the meantime, there was a sound like a mighty rushing wind which had gathered all of these people and there were several hundred thousand, between a half a million and a million wouldn't even be a conservative estimate, in Jerusalem and these masses of people began to gather at the sound of the hurricane, because there wasn't any wind, just the sound.

And as they came together to the location here were all these disciples going about speaking the wonderful works of God in the native languages of all these people who had pilgrimaged to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost.  And they were astounded.  So they Spirit of God had done a great job of publicity.  He had gotten the crowd there.  He had done it by advertising a sound like a wind.  And then He did it by a sign, the miracle of speaking the wonderful works of God.  And that was only a sign to point to the sermon that was coming.  I told you before signs aren't the end.  They're only telling you where the end is.  You don't crawl up on the sign and say I've arrived.  The sign's pointing somewhere else.

And the sign of the wonderful works of God was directing their attention to what Peter was going to say.  But the Spirit of God had gathered the crowd, had opened their minds by the sign and the fact that they were speaking the wonderful works of God that means reciting the historic deeds of God that every Jew knew, made it hard for the Jew to admit anything but that this was of God, because there are only two supernatural sources in the mind of the Jew, God and Satan.  And it's for sure that Satan wouldn't be extolling the wonderful works of God.

So they had to cope with the miracle and then the fact that these disciples were stating the wonderful works of God.  And so they were confounded and immediately at that point Peter stands up and explains to them what's going on.  And you can see how in such a fantastic way the way Spirit of God has prepared their ears to hear the message.  And by the time Peter opens his mouth they're hanging on every word.  What is this that we're seeing?  They cannot deny the phenomena and now they're about to get the explanation.

Peter begins his sermon, verse 14 begins the passage that talks about his sermon.  There are four parts, the introduction, the theme, the appeal, and the results.  The introduction is explaining Pentecost.  Peter bounces right off the living illustration that the Holy Spirit has provided for him.  The second is the theme exalting Jesus.  The third is the appeal exhorting the people, and fourth is the results examining the effect.

Now we saw to begin with the introduction several weeks ago.  Incidentally, I timed this sermon to see how long it would have taken Peter to preach it and if he talks a little bit slower than I talk, which would certainly be to his advantage, it would take about two and a half minutes.  Now I realize that nobody could preach an effective sermon in two and a half minutes.  I mean, I have to believe that.  You understand why.  But I struggled with that and I'll show you a little while later that I believe that what you have here is just a very small portion of Peter's sermon.  Why it must have gone hour after hour, praise the Lord.  But anyway, we'll get to that.

But Peter begins to preach and first of all, he bounces off this illustration that the Spirit has provided, a beautiful illustration, explains to them that what they are seeing is the beginning of Messianic times in terms of fulfillment.  Joel said that in the last days you would pour out the Spirit.  They're beginning to see what I call the prefillment of the ultimate fulfillment which will come in the kingdom.

They're beginning to see the outpouring of the Spirit.  It is Messianic times.  Verse 17 says, "it is the last days."  Now we know that eschatological the last days has already lasted 2,000 years.  The last days is a Jewish term referring to the time of Messiah.  And Messiah came once and everything in between til His second coming still embodies Messianic times.  So he's saying you're seeing the beginning of the end.  This is Messianic times.  They all knew the meaning of the term the last days.  They knew that was a Messianic reference.  Their Messiah had arrived.  Their Savior had come.  Their Redeemer had come.  Their deliverer was there.  Their anointed king had arrived.

And so he says this is Messianic times. Well, if it's Messianic times, there's got to be a Messiah, right?  So he moves immediately into the theme of his sermon in verse 22 which introduces the Messiah as Jesus of Nazareth.  Now that's a startling thing, because they've just gotten through executing Jesus of Nazareth as a blasphemer.  And what a shock it must be to realize that that hope of their hearts for which they had waited all those centuries was now crucified by their own design.  They had actually killed the one they had been waiting for.  And this is what Peter convicts them of.  This great sin.  And first of all, beginning in verse 22, he wants to prove to them that Jesus is the Messiah and he does it by taking first of all, the life of Christ in verse 22 and say that because He did miracles, wonders, and signs, He was being accredited by God as the Messiah.

In verse 23, he takes the death of Christ and says the death of Christ was no accident, it was no...Jesus was no victim, but rather this was ordained by God fulfilling prophecy explicitly.  Then he takes the resurrection of Christ, verses 24-32 and he says, Jesus Christ is the Messiah because of His resurrection.  And He shows how the Old Testament prophet David, who was a prophet, it even says he was a prophet right here in this passage.  Verse 30, that David predicted Messiah would be a resurrected individual.  And Jesus had done that fulfilling David's prophecy so he is Messiah by life, death, resurrection.

Then he goes on to show that He is Messiah by virtue of ascension in verses 33 to 35.  He is the Messiah because He was exalted to the right hand of the Father, they stood there, were eyewitnesses and saw Him go.  The conclusion then of his theme is in verse 36.  Listen to it, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ or Messiah in the Hebrew."  In other words, he has proven Christ to be Messiah.  So the introduction explaining Pentecost and the theme exalting Jesus.

Now he has really indicted them as executioners of their own Messiah.  And he hasn't pulled any punches.  He doesn't play around in the periphery.  He goes right to the core of the problem.  You see the most blatant sin that a man commits is not lying or cheating or committing adultery or this or that.  The blatant sin in which every sinner lives is the sin of rejecting Jesus Christ.  And that's the cardinal sin of which the Spirit convicts.  That's John 16:8-9, "When the Spirit of truth has come He will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment," verse 9, "of sin because they believe not," what, "on me."

In other words, the dominant thing that a man must recognize is that he is a rebel against God's plan and against God's Savior Jesus Christ.  And so Peter shows them that they have executed their own Messiah and their own Savior.  Now I want you to see his appeal beginning in verse 37.  And it's exhorting the people.  He exhorts them.  Verse 40 says, "with many words."  We'll get to that in a minute.

Now whenever you go into any kind of sale, some of you are probably in sales, you're told that when you go to sale your product, be sure that you don't just tell them about it and leave.  The whole idea is get them to sign on the dotted line, right?  And you never have a salesman come to your door and show you the product and then say isn't that a nice product.  I'll call you some time if you're interested.  Oh you'll never have a salesman do that.  They want to get in there and get that little paper out, get that little pen out and here we go.  Well, this doesn't mean anything.  You're just signing here and you're in hock for the rest of your life, see.

The object of any kind of sales is when the promotion's going on, that's when you want to clinch the deal.  Anyone knows that.  So Peter doesn't just say that and say you're all dismissed.  He doesn't wrap up with verse 36, powerful thing and say all right everybody that's it.  If you'd like to know anything more call the office or there will be literature distributed.  You know, he wants to clinch the deal obviously.  Now watch what happens in verse 37.  "And when they heard this," when they heard his sermon, "powerful sermon, they were pricked in their heart and said unto to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men, brethren, what shall we do?"

They call them brethren because that's a term used among Jews.  Doesn't necessarily mean Christians, it means Jews.  They were brothers in terms of Abrahamic ancestry.  What shall we do?  Oh I like that question.  That's good.  They're in the right spot, they're desperate.  That's where the Spirit of God wants to take every man in terms of conviction.  To the place of being desperate.  Now notice it says they were pricked in their heart.  The word that is used for pricked there is the only place it's ever used in the New Testament, interesting word, it means to pierce or to penetrate with a needle or a sharp instrument like a knife.  It's a...it carries the idea of suddenness.  It's like jamming a dagger into somebody.  It's a very piercing sudden grief. 

In other words, the idea is of them going along complacently, you know, in the traditions of Judaism and they were just doing what they always did and Christ came along and they executed Christ and they continued to go along and all of a sudden, wham, the knife came in on the day of Pentecost and they were just cut to the heart.  And grief came as a result of it suddenly.  You say well, what was it that messed them up so much.  What was it that got to them?  Well, I think there were several things.  Let me suggest them.  Number one, the sorrow that the Messiah had been put to death.  I mean, that's a terrible thing.  They'd been waiting for the Messiah for centuries and finally when the Messiah gets there, they have put Him to death through the hands of the Romans.

And that's a terrible thing for them to have to realize.  And I think that cut them deeply.  Those that were convicted were convicted because they saw the Messiah had come and they had executed the Messiah.  Horrible thing, but on top of that secondly, I think that they were cut to the heart because they had a deep sense of guilt that they themselves had done it.  Not only had the eliminated Messiah, but they had eliminated Messiah.  See?  They had actually done it.  It would have been terrible to have lost Messiah had somebody else done it, but they had done it.  And so there was a horrible sense of guilt.

And then thirdly, this, Peter had announced to them in no uncertain terms and there were multiplied witnesses to prove it that this same Jesus who had been crucified was now alive.  And so they were afraid of His wrath.  Why Peter had said down in verse 35 that some day He was going to make His enemies His what?  His footstool.  And that's the picture of the heel on the neck.  There was going to be judgment on the enemies of the Messiah.  And here they were realizing not only were they...had they lost their Messiah, but they had done the execution themselves and they were heaped with guilt because of that, and then they were of the tremendous response of God toward His enemies.  We have killed the Messiah.  What could be a worse sin in all the universe than that?  Nothing in their minds.

Those who were really convicted, were convicted that they had done the worst thing imaginable.  They were right, of course, and the fear of His wrath, they were scared of His vengeance.  He was alive again and He was going to make His enemies is footstool.  They were scared.  Fourthly, I think they were grieved to the heart because they couldn't undo what they did.  They couldn't do a thing about it.  It was done and they were cut.  And they made the right answer.  Look at in verse 37.  "Men, brethren, what shall we do?"  See.  Boy that's the spot to be in.

To avoid the wrath, to make right to wrong, what do we do?  They were desperate.  They had no where to go.  They had nothing to turn to.  They were stuck.  What shall we do?  Well, that's a beautiful thing, because it's just that kind of hopelessness that Jesus Christ can meet, you see.  And as long as man thinks he can do it on his own, he can never the experience of real salvation.  As long as a man brings any of his own works or his own thoughts or his own ideas to add to what he thinks is salvation, there's no way.  It's all of grace, Paul said.  It's not until a man is desperate and says what do I do?  He has no where to turn and no answer that at that point God intervenes with saving grace.

The apostle Paul came to that point on the road to Damascus in Chapter 9 of Acts in verse 6, Paul was really breathing out threatening and slaughterings verse 1 says.  On the way the Lord stopped him.  And verse 5 says, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest."  Oh boy can't you read what's going on in Paul's head?  The next verse says "And he trembling and astonished."  You know he must have shook from top to bottom.  A voice out of heaven, he's blinded and this voice says, "I am Jesus whom thou persecuted."  You know what Paul said?  "Lord, what will thou have me to do?"  See, what do I right?  He was scared as well as convicted.  He had fear.  But perhaps even a more graphic illustration is the illustration of the Philippian jailer.

In the 16^th Chapter of Acts, you remember they were having a great time there in prison singing away and praising God and just having a lot of fun praying and the prisoners heard them and suddenly there's a great earthquake.  And the foundations of the prison were shaking, immediately all the doors were open and everyone's bands were loosed.  The prison started shaking, doors flipped open, everybody was loose.  The keeper of the prison knowing he'd have to pay with the loss of prisoners by his own life, waken out of his sleep seeing the prison doors open drew out his sword and would have killed himself supposing the prisoners had been fled.

Paul walks up and says "Do thyself no harm.  We're all here."  And this guy shocked.  And it says in the next verse, "He called for light and sprang in, and came trembling."  Again he's scared, he is scared.  And fell down before Paul and Silas and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"  You see God exercised fear.  He allowed fear to bring that man to a trembling place.  He brought a measure of fear into the heart of Paul.  He brought a measure of fear into the heart of these Jews over what they had done in rebelling against their own Messiah.  And they came to that point where they had a deep sense of evil, a deep guilt where they feared the justice of God and the retribution of His Messiah.  A desire to be saved from that judgment brought them to the place where they said to Peter what do we do.

And it is just that state in which the soul is prepared to receive the Savior.  It is just that state which is ready to yield to Jesus Christ.  Their guilt is fully exposed.  They are feeling the pain of the apostles' words.  Their consciences are stung by the sense of sinfulness and crucifying Jesus.  They are convicted.  If conversion is to be genuine, it is the offspring of conviction.  I love the passage that illustrates this in Zechariah Chapter 12.  Maybe to some of you an obscure passage, but very, very important.  In Zechariah 12, we have some of the predictions of what's going to happen in the tribulation in the time when Israel is finally redeemed.  And I want you to notice what happens.

Zechariah 12:10, "And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitance of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication."  There's salvation for Israel.  Now watch, "And they shall," here's the first thing, "look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son.  Shall be in bitterness for Him as one that is in bitterness for His first born.  In that day shall be great mourning in Jerusalem."  Verse 12, "And the land shall mourn."  In other words, to begin with in the restoration of Israel, there's going to be a conviction and a guilt over the execution of Messiah.  During the tribulation, the Bible says that Israel will be saved.  And at that time, the salvation is going to come about, first of all, by conviction as they recognize they have pierced their own Messiah.  And the pain and the anguish will be like having murdered your own child.  That's how sacred Messiah is.

And that's exactly the same pain and anguish those people must have felt on the day of Pentecost.  Just as bad as if they had taken some weapon and executed their own first born son.  And then I love this.  In Chapter 13, verse 1 is says, "In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David."  In other words, once conviction comes, it's followed by cleansing.  But cleansing follows conviction and to bring anybody to Christ apart from conviction is not to bring them to Christ at all.  It's an aborted birth.  Conviction is the key in the hand of the Spirit that opens the heart to salvation.

And to everyone that you preach to, you need to preach with conviction.  And we like to water sin down, you know.  We like to hide from it and pad it a little bit so it isn't as gross as the Bible paints it.  It's not right to do that.  Men need to be convicted of sin.  And you need to realize that you're a sinner, not only because you do sins, but you're a sinner because you live in rebellion against God.  You say, I don't rebel against God.  Yes, you do.  You rebel against God by the very fact that you have committed your life to Jesus Christ.  That's God's command that you do that and you've not done it. You live in rebellion against God.

For that you are the vilest kind of sinner.  And so was I before I came to Jesus Christ.  I spoke on this subject and young man came to me afterwards and he said, "You know," he said, "I'm not a rebel against God.  I don't hate God.  I don't feel like that at all."  And I showed him from scripture that he that is not with me is what?  He's against me.  I said, "You may be moving that way my friend, but until you come to Jesus Christ, you're in open rebellion against God."  And this is true.  And so many times we let people off the hook on the basis of well, you know, you're a liar.  You've told some lies.  Yeah, I've told some lies.  See you're a sinner, now repent of that.  That's not what...that's superficial.  The repentance comes in a repentance from the total life of rebellion against the principles of God as exemplified in what Jesus did and said and was.  Don't ever let anybody off short of that.  When you preach, you preach with conviction.

Now, you say, well, if you preach with conviction, look here, 3,000 people will get saved.  You can get out there and you can preach wit conviction and they'll come to Christ.  That's true.  Why not preach with conviction then if they're going to come to Christ?  There's another reaction that's possible though. They may not all come.  Verse 33 of Chapter 5 says this, "And when they heard that," here's another sermon, "they were cut to the heart and to counsel to slay them."  So there are other reactions. 

You say I don't know if I'm so hot on this deal again.  Yeah, I mean, it's not...everybody's going to get...some people might decide to slay him, but there are...you don't...that's...that may be a little rare.  There are other reactions.  Chapter 7, verse 54, is not so.  "When they heard these things they were cut to the heart and the gnashed on him with their teeth."  See that's not quite so bad.  I mean, I could take a little of that, hmmm, anger.  I'm not too sure I could take being slain.  You know, that's a little harder.

You know, you can't assume, well, I've preached with great power and I've exalted the message of repentance.  Therefore everybody's going to flock.  You'll get the reaction all right.  Some will come to Jesus Christ.  Some will grit their teeth and gnash on you, and others may design to slay you.  But does that mean you don't preach it that way?  Does that mean you water it down and don't tell it like it is?  God forbid.  God forbid.  You say well, how do you preach with conviction?  How do you convict men?  Do you tell a lot of really convicting stories and a lot of little stories about kind of scary little tales and do you use a lot of emotional little gimmicks and get them all whipped up into a real fear thing?  No, you don't.  No, you don't.  The great tool of conviction is not telling stories.  The great tool of conviction is the word of God.  The tool of conviction is illustrated to us graphically in Hebrews 4:12.

Listen to this, "For the word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and is a discern of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  Neither is their any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."  It is the word of the God that is the convicting agency in the hand of the Spirit of God.  We don't need all kinds of little convicting gimmicks, the word will do it's work.  It is a piercing thing.  And so when you preaching, if you preach, when you witness, when you witness, you witness with great conviction of sin. 

Don't ever stop short of that.  If there's more to it than this, here's the nice thing, would you like it?  That's not all there is to it.  Anybody liked a nice thing.  There's more to it.  Then I love this statement.  "God hath raised him up."  That almost becomes a title for God in Romans 4:24 when Paul talks about God.  He gives God a name.  He says God...he just talks about God with a name. "Him that raised up Jesus."  That almost becomes a proper name for God.  "Him that raised up Jesus."

Now notice in verse 24 that it says...and we'll move a little faster now, maybe.  "Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death."  God loosed the pains of death.  That's a tremendous statement.  Now the word pains is the key word to understanding that phrase.  It's the word birth pangs.  It has to do with the cramps and the pains that a woman has prior to giving birth to a child.  And it's a significant word because it's a word that means that the pain is temporary and it issues in something glorious or something further.

And here when Jesus died that was only a little temporary birth pang which would issue in the glorious resurrection.  You see?  Now this word is used few places in the New Testament in significant ways.  In Matthew 24:8 and Jesus in all of that discourse, Jesus said, "There will be wars and rumors and wars."  Then He said, "Nation will rise against nation," verse 8.  Then He said, "There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes."  And He said when you see all that that is only the beginning of sorrows.  And the word there is that is only the birth pangs of sorrows.  You haven't seen anything yet.  Now, there's something else about this word that's kind of significant.

Whatever is born is something which has never been seen before, right?  And there had never been a resurrection like Jesus.  He was the first, what, fruits.  And so the birth pangs were to issue in a new kind of life, which was then given to everyone after Jesus Christ in His church in a glorious new birth in resurrection promise.  The pangs that we see in Matthew 24, as we see wars and rumors of wars and all these things are finally going to give birth to the horror of the end of the great tribulation and that's such evil as has also never been seen in the history of the world.

So the word speaks of something that is not before ever known.  And so Jesus Christ suffered a few birth pangs that He might bring forth resurrection life for all who believe in Him.  What a fantastic truth.  And so as Christians, we don't fear death.  We don't dear death any more than a mother in thrill and the anticipation of knowing that she's going to bring forth a new life fears the pain the precedes it.  That's incidental to the joy.  And so it is that we may look forward to death and we may say well, it might hurt a little bit.  I mean, I might die slowly and it might be a little bit painful, but it's only birth pangs that are going to issue in a glorious resurrection life.

That's our hope isn't it?  And we have a guarantee in 1 Corinthians 6 isn't it, verse 14 where the apostle Paul speaking of this.  Yes, says "And God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by His own power."  Do you know that the guarantee of your resurrection is just as secure as the guarantee was of Christ?  Same power.  So we have no fear.  All right, God raised Him up.  He freed Him from the birth bangs of death which issued in resurrection life.  Now this is a tremendous statement because, and here's a simple statement, because it wasn't possible that He should be held by it.

There was no way death could hold Jesus Christ, impossible.  You say, why?  Number one, He was too powerful.  Divine power.  Death could not handle Jesus.  Hebrews 2:14 said "That Jesus became a man, became made of flesh that through death He might destroy Him that had the power of death even the devil."  Hebrews 2:14.  Jesus had too much power.  Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and", what, "and the life."  He not only gave life, He was life.  And death couldn't hold Him.  No way.  He shattered the chains of death and came out of that grave.  He had too much power.

Secondly, not only divine power made it impossible, but divine promise.  In John Chapter 2, Jesus said, "Destroy this temple and in three days I'll raise it."  And they all looked at the temple and thought good how will He ever do that.  They were thinking He was talking about the big stone temple.  And the next verse says, "But He spake to them concerning His own body."  Jesus said, you destroy it and I'll raise it up.  Divine promise made the resurrection necessary.  And in Luke 24 when He was talking to the disciples after His resurrection it says in verse 44, "He said unto them, these are the words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets, the Psalms concerning me."

Those are three Old Testament divisions.  Verse 45, "Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures."  The Old Testament.  "He said unto them, thus it is written from the Old Testament and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day."  Did you know that even the third day resurrection was prophesied in the Old Testament in the feast of first fruits?  Every detail, and so divine power and divine promise made it necessary for Jesus to rise and death couldn't handle Him.

Third thing, divine purpose.  God had designed to call a people to Himself.  And in order for those people to come to Him, they had to go through death and out the other side and Jesus had to make the way.  "Because I live," what, "ye shall live also."  So divine purpose as well.  Now, God raised Him, death could not handle Him.  Do you think death could handle God?  No way.  That's a wonderful promise for us isn't it?  Do we have to fear death?  What does Paul say?  "Oh death where is thy victory?"  He mocks death.  Where's your sting?  See.  He's mocking at the end of 1 Corinthians 15.  The whole language is sarcastic.  Take that death.  See?  He's laughing and scorning death and we can because Jesus Christ knows the way through.

Now to confirm the resurrection as God's plan for the Messiah, Peter very, very carefully takes an Old Testament text, Psalm 16, verses 8-11 and quotes it then applies it.  And this is a masterpiece.  Watch this, verse 25.  Now he's going to quote the Old Testament Psalm 16, "For David," and of course, just whamo, he grabs, you know, one of the great lights in Jewish history whom they all loved and adored.  "For David speaketh concerning Him."  David spoke about Messiah.  David...you mean to tell me David spoke about Jesus of Nazareth?  Oh that's new stuff.  They believed Jesus of Nazareth to be a blasphemer.  This is the same Jesus who did miracles, verse 23, "who died according to the plan of God."  Verse 24, "who raised...who was raised according to the power of God."  And the one that David spoke about.  You say David spoke about Him?  Sure Psalm 16 and he goes right off to quote it.  "I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on right hand that I should not be moved.  Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad.  Moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope, because thou will not leave my soul in Hades.  Neither will thou allow thine Holy One to see corruption.  Thou hast made known to me the path to life.  Thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance."

Now here you have one of the interesting phenomenons in prophecy.  Frequently, the prophet speaking in the first person is really the voice of Messiah.  Now as you study the Psalms, you'll find this again and again.  For example, in Psalm 22, David says, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me."  But whose words were those really?  They were the words of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Very often does prophetic pattern to put in the first person the words of the Messiah right in the mouth of the prophet.  You find it even later on in Psalm 22 and you find it elsewhere as well.

And so here David is speaking, but it is really the Messiah speaking.  And David was prophesying the words of Messiah regarding His trust in God as He looked to the cross.  Now look at verse 25, "I foresaw the Lord always before my face."  Here Jesus is simply saying I just kept my eyes on God.  That's what it says.  I kept my eyes on God.  I was continually seeing before my face the Lord.  You see that's the whole key.  Jesus never had any problem with anything He did, because His focus was in the right place. 

You know, the thing that really fouls up Christians is that they get their attention off the Lord and they start looking at everything else.  I always remember the story I read about the preacher who wanted to train his dog and so he would try to train to his dog to be obedient and he threw a piece of meat on the floor and the dog would run over and gobble it up and he'd take a big stick and smash the dog.  And the next day, he'd throw some more meat out and the dog would run over and eat the meat and he'd smash him again.  Well, pretty soon the dog got the message.  You eat meat, get smashed.  You know, it didn't take too long.  And then the dog didn't do it anymore and the preacher began to notice that the reason was that whenever he'd throw the meat there, the dog would never watch meet, the dog would never take his eyes off the master.  And as long as his eyes were on the master he had no problem with the meat.  As soon as he started looking over there he got fouled up.  The temptation was strong.  And the same thing true in the Christian life.

If you go through life looking at all the goodies, you're going to get into problems.  Jesus Christ always knew where the focus was to be and He set His face toward God and He never moved it.  And Jesus is talking here, the Messiah, prophetically through the mouth of David is saying I just kept my gaze on God and God's plan.  And whatever came just came. Even in death, and then He says at the end of verse 25, "For He is on my right hand that I should not be moved."  Isn't that good?  The right was the sign of protection in a marriage.  Traditionally the bridegroom stands on the right hand as the protector of the bride.

A bodyguard stands at the right side protecting with his shield.  You see?  Over here he holds his shield against the one he's protecting and he fights with his right arm.  The right side was protection.  So Jesus simply says I have nothing to fear.  I go willingly to the cross because God is my protector.  I trust Him.  And verse 26, "Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad."  You say you mean He was happy about the cross.  Hebrews 12:2 says, "He went to the cross for the joy that was set before Him."  Sure, oh He wasn't glad for the pain.  He was glad for the results and He kept His eyes on the joy that came past the pain.

And so Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is saying "Therefore did my heart rejoice, my tongue was glad."  And then here comes the indication of resurrection.  "Moreover my flesh also shall rest in hope."  The literal Greek translation of that is this, my body shall pitch its tent on the ground called hope.  In other words, I trust God.  I don't have anything to fear.  I can go right into death and I can just believe God to come right out the other side.  That's what He means in verse 27 when He says, "Thou will not leave my soul in Hades neither will