For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. Moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope;
because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
You made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
“Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in Hades, and his flesh didn’t see decay. This Jesus God raised up, to which we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted by the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this, which you now see and hear.
For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit by my right hand
until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’
“Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38 25. The resurrection, which was both declared and witnessed…
25. The resurrection, which was both declared and witnessed by certain and evident testimonies, and which might also have been gathered out of the continual doctrine of the prophets, was to be proved to the Jews as some new and strange thing. And no marvel. For we see that although Christ had oftentimes beat the same into his disciples’ heads, yet did they profit but a little. And yet did they retain certain principles of true doctrine, which might have made a way for them unto the knowledge of Christ, as we shall see by and by. Therefore, because the gift of the Spirit was a fruit of the resurrection of Christ, he proveth by the testimony of David that Christ must needs have risen again, that the Jews may thereby know that he was the author of the gift. For he taketh it as a thing which all men grant, that he was raised up from death, that he may live not for himself, but for his. Now we see Peter’s drift; that that ought to seem no strange thing which was foretold so long before; and that Jesus is also Christ, because David did prophecy of him, as of the tied of the Church.
First of all, we must see whether this place ought altogether to be understood of Christ, as Peter affirmeth; that done, if there be any thing in the words worth noting, we will in order discuss it. Peter denieth that that agreeth with David which is said in this place:
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“Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to see corruption,” (Psalm 16:10,)
because David’s carcass was corrupt in the grave. It seemeth at the first blush to be but a light argument. For a man might easily object, that the word is not to be urged, forasmuch as David meant nothing else, save only to exempt himself from destruction. Therefore, howsoever corruption did touch him, yet doth that no whit hinder but that he may easily say that he was safe from the danger thereof, because he knew that the Lord would deliver him. Yea, it seemeth to be a repetition of the former sentence, according to the common custom of the Hebrew tongue. Which if it be so, the sense shall be plain, that God will not suffer him to be oppressed with death, or that death should consume him. And this interpretation is confirmed by that where we read hell, it is in Hebrew סל, (seol;) where we read corruption, there it is שחת, (shachat;) both these words do signify the grave. By this means David should say twice, that he shall be delivered from death by the grace of God. Finally, he saith the same thing in this place, which he saith, (Psalm 49:15,) “God shall redeem my soul from the hand of hell.” Like as, on the other side, when he speaketh of the reprobates, he is wont to take “going down into the grave” for destruction. I answer briefly, that there is some greater thing expressed in this place than the common redemption or deliverance of the godly. David, indeed, doth promise that God will be his eternal deliverer, as well in life as in death. Neither had he been much better for this, to have been once delivered from one danger, unless he had hoped that he should be safe even unto the end through God’s protection; but he speaketh of such safety as is not common. And surely the words do sound that he speaketh of some new and singular privilege. Admit I grant that it is a repetition, and that there is all one thing uttered in these two members, “Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell;” and, “Thou shalt not suffer me to see corruption;” yet do I deny that it is simply to be understood that God will deliver his Holy One from eternal destruction; for freedom from corruption is promised by name. Neither do I pass for this, that שחת (shachat) doth signify the grave, as סל, (seol,) which is put in the former member. For although I do not stand nor contend about the words, yet must we respect the etymology. Therefore, forasmuch as the grave is called שחת, (shachat) because it doth corrupt man’s body with rottenness, it is not to be doubted but that David meant to note that quality. Therefore, the place is not so much expressed by this word, as the condition of rotting. So that the sense is, that God will not suffer him of whom the Psalm speaketh “to rot or corrupt in the grave.” And forasmuch as David was not free from this necessity, it followeth that the prophecy was neither truly nor perfectly fulfilled in him.
And that the Psalm ought altogether to be expounded of Christ, the thing itself doth prove. For seeing that David was one of the sons of Adam, he could not escape that universal condition and estate of mankind,
“Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,” (Genesis 3:19;)
the grave standeth open (I say) for all the children of Adam, that it may swallow them up, and consume them; so that no man can exempt himself from corruption. So that, beholding ourselves apart from Christ, we see the grave prepared for us, which threateneth to us corruption. Wherefore, if David be separated from Christ, that shall not belong to him which is here said, that he shall be preserved from the grave. Therefore, when he boasteth that he shall be free from the grave, as touching corruption, without all doubt he placeth himself in the body of Christ, wherein death was overcome, and the kingdom thereof abolished. But and if David do promise himself exempting from the grave in another respect, save only so far forth as he is a member of Christ, hereby it appeareth that this freedom must begin at Christ as at the head. What man soever shall be of sound judgment shall easily know that this is a good argument. God did put all mankind under corruption; therefore, David, inasmuch as he was of the number of men, could not be free from the same. Neither is it to be doubted, but that the Jews, before whom this sermon was made, forasmuch as without question that maxim was of force amongst them, that they were to hope for the restoring of things at the hands of Christ alone, did the more readily stay themselves upon the words of Peter; because they saw that that could no otherwise be which the words do import, unless they should apply it to the Messias. For they were not come to that point of impudence, at least those of whom mention is made here, that they durst cavil in matters which were evident; for God had then offered unto his disciples those which were godly hearers, and apt to be taught. They sought the Messias in the Old Testament. They knew that David was a figure of him. There was amongst them some religion and reverence of the Scriptures then; but now the impudency of all the whole nation almost is desperate. Howsoever they be urged, they wrench themselves out one way or other. Where there is no way to escape, yet they break through; although they be overcome, yet will they not yield; neither is it to be doubted but that this their shameless forwardness is a punishment for their ungodliness. But let us return unto Peter’s sermon.
Seeing that David doth not only affirm that God also shall be his deliverer, but doth express a singular way and means; namely, that he shall not be subject to the corruption of the grave, Peter doth for good causes gather, that that doth not properly appertain unto him, for that his body was corrupt in the grave. And now, because this had been somewhat hard to be spoken among the Jews, he mollifieth the hardness with a circumlocution. For he doth not flatly deny in one word that that was fulfilled indeed in David, but doth only by the way signify so much unto them, because he lieth consumed in the grave after the common custom of other men. And David did so prophesy of Christ, that he did both apply this consolation unto himself privately, and’ also extend the same unto the whole body of the Church. For that which is sound and perfect in the head is spread abroad, being afterward poured out into all the members. Neither is it to be denied but that David spoke of himself in this place; yet only so far forth as he beheld himself in Christ, as in the mirror of life. First, he hath respect unto Christ; after that he turneth his eyes toward himself, and others the faithful. So that we have a general doctrine prescribed unto us in this plate, concerning the nature of faith, the spiritual joy of conscience: and the hope of eternal deliverance.
I saw We must hold this principle. If we will have God present with us, we must set him before our eyes; and that before he do appear; for the prospect of faith pierceth far further than unto the present experience. Therefore faith hath this property, to set God always before it as a guide in all dangers and confused matters. For there is nothing that doth so much hold us up, as when we know that God is present with us; as the opinion of his absence doth often cast us down, and at length quite discourage us. David addeth, That he took not heed in vain unto the direction of God. “He is (saith he) at my right hand;” whereby he doth signify that we need not to fear lest we be deceived, when as we set him before us at present; for we shall always feel his help most ready. Faith, in hoping for the help of God, ought to prevent and overgo all experience, and whatsoever is perceived by the sense; but so soon as it shall give this glory to God, that it doth behold him in his Word, although he be absent, and so, consequently, invisible, it shall be overcome with the effect of the thing. For the measure of faith is not able to comprehend the infinite greatness of the power and goodness of God. He draweth a similitude from those which, when they will underprop the weak, or strengthen the fearful, do join themselves unto their side. Not to be moved, is not to be thrown down from their degree, but to remain firm in their estate; like as also Psalm 46:5, God is in the midst of it, therefore shall it not be moved. For although it come to pass sometimes that the godly be sore shaken, yet because they come to themselves again, they are said to continue firm. Therefore, there is no cause why they should be afraid of falling, who are upholden by the help of God. Like as, on the other side, those which place their strength anywhere else save only in God, they shall be like to fall at every blast of wind, but at any mean wind of temptation they shall fall to the ground.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 30, 32, 33, 36, 38 Thou wilt not suffer me to remain in grave.
Thou wilt not suffer me to remain in grave.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv25–38 25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the…
25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Ver. 25. Be moved] Tossed as a ship by tempest.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv25–38 David speaketh concerning him, Psa 16:8.
David speaketh concerning him, Psa 16:8.
I foresaw the Lord always before my face: in the psalm it is, I have set the Lord: the apostle following the reading of the Seventy, then in use and known; and to the same sense; for by faith we both see God, and place our confidence in him; David, and especially our Saviour, doing and enduring all things as in the sight of God, whom he knew to be both careful of him, and ready to help him. Thus, in all troubles, there is no such approved comfort, as the seeing or acknowledging the will of God concerning them, his power to preserve us under them, and his promises to deliver us from them. Christ, and all that are Christ’s, do conflict under the eye and in the sight of God, as soldiers whilst their general looks on.
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On my right hand; the place of the advocate for one that is accused or endangered.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv25, 36, 37, 38 St. Peter here proceeds in this memorable sermon, which…
St. Peter here proceeds in this memorable sermon, which he preached at the feast of Pentecost, to convince the Jews, that Jesus, whom they had crucified, was undoubtedly the promised Messias, because he was raised from the grave according to the prophetical prediction, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption Psa 16:10.
And accordingly St. Peter doth strongly prove that these words, in their literal sense, could not be spoken of David, because he was left in the grave, and saw corruption; but must be applied unto Christ, who though he was laid, yet was not lost in the grave, but saw no corruption, being raised by God the third day.
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Hence note, That though death bound the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, and laid him in his grave, yet, Samson-like, he snapt and broke those bands asunder, it being impossible that he should be holden of them, or confined by them. It was impossible for Christ to continue death’s prisoner in the grave longer than three days:
1. Because he was Lord of life and death, he was the resurrection and the life; life to quicken himself, and the resurrection to raise us; he was the resurrection effectively, the life essentially and formally.
Now it was impossible for death to hold him that was life itself under its power, any longer than he who is life pleased; and for this reason he is said to swallow up death in victory, 1Co 15:54.
2. Because of his undertaking for us; for if Christ had been held by corporal death, we must have continued for ever under the power of spiritual death; therefore the Holy one was not suffered to see corruption, the least corruption, according to the prophetical prediction, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell Psa 16:10; that is, my dead body in the grave, (for David was left in that hell, from which Christ was raised, but the hell which David was in was not beyond the grave;) nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption; that is, I shall neither see nor feel, nor lie under the power of corruption, but shall suddenly rise again, and then my Father will show me the path of life, and make me full of joy with his countenance; that is, after my resurrection, I shall lie for ever in glory in the presence of my Father, where I shall have fulness of joy, and rivers of pleasure for evermore.
The last part of St. Peter’s sermon treats of Christ’s ascension. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, &c. Act 2:33 intimating, That when the Lord Jesus Christ had finished his work upon earth, he was placed in the seat of the highest honour and authority, at the right hand of God in heaven.
To convince the Jews of the certainty hereof, St. Peter applies that promise, unto Christ, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool Psa 110:1; showing that these words are not applicable unto David; for David is not ascended into heaven in his own person, but his body remained in the sepulchre then amongst them; but Christ was ascended, and at the right hand of God exalted, and, pursuant to his promise, had now sent down the Holy Ghost in fiery cloven tongues, and divers languages, upon them.
Where note, The great and wonderful change in the state and condition of Christ, since his ascension into heaven: a little while since they called him the carpenter’s son, this fellow, this deceiver; now he has obtained a more excellent name than angels. Then he had not a place to lay his head on; now he is exalted to be heir of all things. Here he sweats, there he sits; here he groaned, there he triumphs; never to groan, weep, or bleed more. His human nature is advanced to the highest honours, even to the object of adoration both to angels and men. This was the doctrinal part of St. Peter’s sermon: it treated of the person, life, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension, of the Lord Jesus, in a very close and convincing manner. His warm application of the whole now follows, Act 2:36.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v37 We have seen the wonderful effect of the pouring…
We have seen the wonderful effect of the pouring out of the Spirit, in its influence upon the preachers of the gospel. Peter, in all his life, never spoke at the rate that he had done now, with such fulness, perspicuity, and power. We are now to see another blessed fruit of the pouring out of the Spirit in its influence upon the hearers of the gospel. From the first delivery of that divine message, it appeared that there was a divine power going along with it, and it was mighty, through God, to do wonders: thousands were immediately brought by it to the obedience of faith; it was the rod of God's strength sent out of Zion, Psa 110:2, Psa 110:3. We have here the first-fruits of that vast harvest of souls which by it were gathered in to Jesus Christ. Come and see, in these verses, the exalted Redeemer riding forth, in these chariots of salvation, conquering and to conquer, Rev 6:2.
In these verses we find the word of God the means of beginning and carrying on a good work of grace in the hearts of many, the Spirit of the Lord working by it. Let us see the method of it.
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I. They were startled, and convinced, and put upon a serious enquiry, Act 2:37. When they heard, or having heard, having patiently heard Peter out, and not given him the interruption they had been used to give to Christ in his discourses (this was one good point gained, that they were become attentive to the word), they were pricked to the heart, or in the heart, and, under a deep concern and perplexity, applied themselves to the preachers with this question, What shall we do? It was very strange that such impressions should be made upon such hard hearts all of a sudden. They were Jews, bred up in the opinion of the sufficiency of their religion to save them, had lately seen this Jesus crucified in weakness and disgrace, and were told by their rulers that he was a deceiver. Peter had charged them with having a hand, a wicked hand, in his death, which was likely to have exasperated them against him; yet, when they heard this plain scriptural sermon, they were much affected with it.
1. It put them in pain: They were pricked in their hearts. We read of those that were cut to the heart with indignation at the preacher (Act 7:54), but these were pricked to the heart with indignation at themselves for having been accessory to the death of Christ. Peter, charging it upon them, awakened their consciences, touched them to the quick, and the reflection they now made upon it was as a sword in their bones, it pierced them as they had pierced Christ. Note, Sinners, when their eyes are opened, cannot but be pricked to the heart for sin, cannot but experience an inward uneasiness; this is having the heart rent (Joe 2:13), a broken and contrite heart, Psa 51:17. Those that are truly sorry for their sins, and ashamed of them, and afraid of the consequences of them, are pricked to the heart. A prick in the heart is mortal, and under those commotions (says Paul) I died, Rom 7:9. "All my good opinion of myself and confidence in myself failed me."
2. It put them upon enquiry. Our of the abundance of the heart, thus pricked, the mouth spoke. Observe,
(1.) To whom they thus addressed themselves: To Peter and to the rest of the apostles, some to one and some to another; to them they opened their case; by them they had been convinced, and therefore by them they expect to be counselled and comforted. They do not appeal from them to the scribes and Pharisees, to justify them against the apostles' charge, but apply to them, as owning the charge, and referring the case to them. They call them men and brethren, as Peter had called them (Act 2:29): it is a style of friendship and love, rather than a title of honour: "You are men, look upon us with humanity; you are brethren, look upon us with brotherly love." Note, Ministers are spiritual physicians; they should be advised with by those whose consciences are wounded; and it is good for people to be free and familiar with those ministers, as men and their brethren, who deal for their souls as for their own.
(2.) What the address is: What shall we do? [1.] They speak as men at a stand, that did not know what to do; in a perfect surprise: "Is that Jesus whom we have crucified both Lord and Christ? Then what will become of us who crucified him? We are all undone!" Note, No way of being happy but by seeing ourselves miserable. When we find ourselves in danger of being lost for ever, there is hope of our being made for ever, and not till then. [2.] They speak as men at a point, that were resolved to do any thing they should be directed to immediately; they are not for taking time to consider, nor for adjourning the prosecution of their convictions to a more convenient season, but desire now to be told what they must do to escape the misery they were liable to. Note, Those that are convinced of sin would gladly know the way to peace and pardon, Act 9:6; Act 16:30.
II. Peter and the other apostles direct them in short what they must do, and what in so doing they might expect, Act 2:38, Act 2:39. Sinners convinced must be encouraged; and that which is broken must be bound up (Eze 34:16); they must be told that though their case is sad it is not desperate, there is hope for them.
1. He here shows them the course they must take. (1.) Repent; this is a plank after shipwreck. "Let the sense of this horrid guilt which you have brought upon yourselves by putting Christ to death awaken you to a penitent reflection upon all your other sins (as the demand of some one great debt brings to light all the debts of a poor bankrupt) and to bitter remorse and sorrow for them" This was the same duty that John the Baptist and Christ had preached, and now that the Spirit is poured out is it still insisted on: "Repent, repent; change your mind, change your way; admit an after-thought." (2.) Be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ; that is, "firmly believe the doctrine of Christ, and submit to his grace and government; and make an open solemn profession of this, and come under an engagement to abide by it, by submitting to the ordinance of baptism; be proselyted to Christ and to his holy religion, and renounce your infidelity." They must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. They did believe in the Father and the Holy Ghost speaking by the prophets; but they must also believe in the name of Jesus, that he is the Christ, the Messias promised to the fathers. "Take Jesus for your king, and by baptism swear allegiance to him; take him for your prophet, and hear him; take him for your priest, to make atonement for you," which seems peculiarly intended here; for they must be baptized in his name for the remission of sins upon the score of his righteousness. (3.) This is pressed upon each particular person: Every one of you. "Even those of you that have been the greatest sinners, if they repent and believe, are welcome to be baptized; and those who think they have been the greatest saints have yet need to repent, and believe, and be baptized. There is grace enough in Christ for every one of you, be you ever so many, and grace suited to the case of every one. Israel of old were baptized unto Moses in the camp, the whole body of the Israelites together, when they passed through the cloud and the sea (Co1 10:1, Co1 10:2), for the covenant of peculiarity was national; but now every one of you distinctly must be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and transact for himself in this great affair." See Col 1:28.
2. He gives them encouragement to take this course: - (1.) "It shall be for the remission of sins. Repent of your sin, and it shall not be your ruin; be baptized into the faith of Christ, and in truth you shall be justified, which you could never be by the law of Moses. Aim at this, and depend upon Christ for it, and this you shall have. As the cup in the Lord's supper is the New Testament in the blood of Christ for the remission of sins, so baptism is in the name of Christ for the remission of sins. Be washed, and you shall be washed." (2.) "You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost as well as we; for it is designed for a general blessing: some of you shall receive these external gifts, and each of you, if you be sincere in your faith and repentance, shall receive his internal graces and comforts, shall be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." Note, All that receive the remission of sins receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. All that are justified are sanctified. (3.) "Your children shall still have, as they have had, an interest in the covenant, and a title to the external seal of it. Come over to Christ, to receive those inestimable benefits; for the promise of the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, is to you and to your children," Act 2:39. It was very express (Isa 44:3): I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed. And (Isa 59:21), My Spirit and my word shall not depart from thy seed, and thy seed's seed. When God took Abraham into covenant, he said, I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed (Gen 17:7); and, accordingly, every Israelite had his son circumcised at eight days old. Now it is proper for an Israelite, when he is by baptism to come into a new dispensation of this covenant, to ask, "What must be done with my children? Must they be thrown out, or taken in with me?" "Taken in" (says Peter) "by all means; for the promise, that great promise of God's being to you a God, is as much to you and to your children now as ever it was." (4.) "Though the promise is still extended to your children as it has been, yet it is not, as it has been, confined to you and them, but the benefit of it is designed for all that are afar off;" we may add, and their children, for the blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, Gal 3:14. The promise had long pertained to the Israelites (Rom 9:4); but now it is sent to those that are afar off, the remotest nations of the Gentiles, and every one of them too, all that are afar off. To this general the following limitation must refer, even as many of them, as many particular persons in each nation, as the Lord our God shall call effectually into the fellowship of Jesus Christ. Note, God can make his call to reach those that are ever so far off, and none come but those whom he calls.
III. These directions are followed with a needful caution (Act 2:40): With many other words, to the same purport, did he testify gospel truths, and exhort to gospel duties; now that the word began to work he followed it; he had said much in a little (Act 2:38, Act 2:39), and that which, one would think, included all, and yet he had more to say. When we have heard those words which have done our souls good, we cannot but wish to hear more, to hear many more such words. Among other things he said (and it should seem inculcated it), Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Be you free from them. The unbelieving Jews were an untoward generation, perverse and obstinate; they walked contrary to God and man (Th1 2:15), wedded to sin and marked for ruin. Now as to them, 1. "Give diligence to save yourselves from their ruin, that you may not be involved in that, and may escape all those things" (as the Christians did): "Repent, and be baptized; and then you shall not be sharers in destruction with those with whom you have been sharers in sin." O gather not my soul with sinners. 2. "In order to this continue not with them in their sin, persist not with them in infidelity. Save yourselves, that is, separate yourselves, distinguish yourselves, from this untoward generation. Be not rebellious like this rebellious house; partake not with them in their sins, that you share not with them in their plagues." Note, To separate ourselves from wicked people is the only way to save ourselves from them; though we hereby expose ourselves to their rage and enmity, we really save ourselves from them; for, if we consider whither they are hastening, we shall see it is better to have the trouble of swimming against their stream than the danger of being carried down their stream. Those that repent of their sins, and give up themselves to Jesus Christ, must evidence their sincerity by breaking off all intimate society with wicked people. Depart from me, ye evil doers, is the language of one that determines to keep the commandments of his God, Psa 119:115. We must save ourselves from them, which denotes avoiding them with dread and holy fear, as we would save ourselves from an enemy that seeks to destroy us, or from a house infected with the plague.
IV. Here is the happy success and issue of this, Act 2:41. The Spirit wrought with the word, and wrought wonders by it. These same persons that had many of them been eye-witnesses of the death of Christ, and the prodigies that attended it, and were not wrought upon by them, were yet wrought upon by the preaching of the word, for it is this that is the power of God unto salvation. 1. They received the word; and then only the word does us good, when we do receive it, embrace it, and bid it welcome. They admitted the conviction of it, and accepted the offers of it. 2. They gladly received it. Herod heard the word gladly, but these gladly received it, were not only glad that they had it to receive, but glad that by the grace of God they were enabled to receive it, though it would be a humbling changing word to them, and would expose them to the enmity of their countrymen. 3. They were baptized; believing with the heart, they made confession with the mouth, and enrolled themselves among the disciples of Christ by that sacred rite and ceremony which he had instituted. And though Peter had said, "Be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus" (because the doctrine of Christ was the present truth), yet we have reason to think that, in baptizing them, the whole form Christ prescribed was used, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Note, Those that receive the Christian covenant ought to receive the Christian baptism. 4. Hereby there were added to the disciples to the number of about three thousand souls that same day. All those that had received the Holy Ghost had their tongues at work to preach, and their hands at work to baptize; for it was time to be busy, when such a harvest was to be gathered in. The conversion of these three thousand with these words was a greater work than the feeding of four or five thousand with a few loaves. Now Israel began to multiply after the death of our Joseph. They are said to be three thousand souls (which word is generally used for persons when women and children are included with men, as Gen 14:21, margin, Give me the souls; Gen 46:27, seventy souls), which intimates that those that were here baptized were not so many men, but so many heads of families as, with their children and servants baptized, might make up three thousand souls. These were added to them. Note, Those who are joined to Christ are added to the disciples of Christ, and join with them. When we take God for our God, we must take his people to be our people.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv25–38 For David speaketh concerning him,.... The Messiah, the Lord…
For David speaketh concerning him,.... The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Psa 16:8. The whole psalm belongs to the Messiah, and everything concerning the person in it agrees with him; such as his trust in God, Psa 16:1 as he was man and Mediator; his very great regard to the saints, and delight in them, Psa 16:2 his disregard to others who were hastening after another God, or another Saviour, whose sacrifices, as an high priest, he would not offer up, nor make intercession for them, Psa 16:4 his exceeding great satisfaction in having the God of Israel for his portion, and in having his lot cast among his peculiar people, who were a delightful inheritance to him, Psa 16:5 his thankfulness for advice and direction in the time of his sorrows and sufferings; and his dependence on the almighty power of God to support and protect him, Psa 16:7 and the joy and comfort he was filled with in the view of his resurrection from the dead, and his enjoyment of the heavenly glory, Psa 16:9,
I foresaw the Lord always before my face; Christ always had Jehovah in view throughout the whole of his life; and in his last moments he had respect unto the glory of his perfections, as the ultimate end of his obedience and sufferings; and to his purposes, council, and covenant, which were to be accomplished by him; and to his will and command in preaching the Gospel, working miracles, going about to do good, in obeying the precept, and bearing the penalty of the law; as well as to his promises, and his power to assist, support, and preserve him, as man and Mediator:
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for he is on my right hand; which expresses his nearness to him, his presence with him, his readiness to assist him, and his protection of him; as if he was his second that stood by him, to take his part, and, if need be, to take up his cause, and defend him from his enemies; see Psa 109:31.
that I should not be moved; from his station, place, and duty; from the cause he was engaged in, so as to relinquish it; or with the fear of men, or fury of devils, or wrath of God, whilst he was doing and suffering, according to the will of God.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 Psalm xvi, 8.
Psalm xvi, 8.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv25–38 Verse 25. For David speaketh concerning him] The quotation…
Verse 25. For David speaketh concerning him] The quotation here is made from Ps 16:8-11, which contains a most remarkable prophecy concerning Christ, every word of which applies to him, and to him exclusively. See the notes there.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv25, 29, 32, 37 Act 2:25-28. For David speaketh concerning him — Namely,…
Act 2:25-28. For David speaketh concerning him — Namely, Psa 16:8-11, where see the notes. I foresaw the Lord always before my face — In the Psalm, according to the Hebrew, it is, I have set the Lord always before me. Our Lord Jesus had a constant regard to his Father in his whole undertaking. He set his Father’s glory before him as his end, and his Father’s will as his rule, in every part of it. And he foresaw that his sufferings would redound abundantly to the honour of God, and would issue in his own everlasting joy and felicity. These things were set before him, and these he had an eye to in all he did and suffered; and with the prospect of these, he was supported and carried on. He is on my right hand — The instrument of action, strengthening, upholding, and guiding it; that I should not be moved — Shaken in, or driven from, my undertaking, by the hardships I must undergo. Therefore, &c. — On account of the firm confidence I had in him, that I should be supported in, and carried through all my labours and sufferings, and that they should have a glorious issue; my heart rejoiced in the midst of them; and my tongue was glad — Praised God in a joyful manner. In the Psalm it is, My glory rejoiceth: for our tongue is our glory; the faculty of speech is an honour to us; and never more so than when it is employed in praising God. Moreover my flesh shall rest in hope — The grave shall be to my body a bed of repose, and I shall cheerfully deliver it up to be laid there, in hope of a blessed resurrection. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell — Εις αδου, in the invisible world. For it does not appear that ever our Lord’s soul went into what we call hell. On the contrary, when it was separated from the body, it went to paradise, Luk 23:43. The meaning is, Thou wilt not leave my soul in its state of separation from the body, nor suffer my body to be corrupted. See note on Psa 16:10. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life — To which thou wilt assuredly conduct me; and after all my sufferings here, thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance — With manifestations of thy love and favour, in those upper and more glorious regions to which thou wilt raise me.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38 For Daniel speaketh ... - This doctrine that the…
For Daniel speaketh ... - This doctrine that the Messiah must rise from the dead Peter proceeds to prove by a quotation from the Old Testament. This passage is taken from Psa 16:8-11. It is made from the Greek version of the Septuagint, with only one slight and unimportant change. Nor is there any material change, as will be seen, from the Hebrew. In what sense this Psalm can be applied to Christ will be seen after we have examined the expressions which Peter alleges.
I foresaw the Lord - This is an unhappy translation. To foresee the Lord always before us conveys no idea, though it may be a literal translation of the passage. The word means “to foresee,” and then “to see before us,” that is, “as present with us, to regard as being near.” It thus implies “to put confidence in one; to rely on him, or expect assistance from him.” This is its meaning here. The Hebrew is, “I expected, or waited for.” It thus expresses the petition of one who is helpless and dependent, who waits for help from God. It is often thus used in the Old Testament.
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Always before my face - As being always present to help me, and to deliver me out of all my troubles.
He is on my right hand - To be at hand is to be near to afford help. The right hand is mentioned because that was the place of dignity and honor. David did not design simply to say that he was near to help him, but that he had the place of honor, the highest place in his affections, Psa 109:31. In our dependence on God we should exalt him. We should not merely regard him as our help, but should at the same time give him the highest place in our affections.
That I should not be moved - That is, that no great evil or calamity should happen to me; that I may stand firm. The phrase denotes “to sink into calamities, or to fall into the power of enemies,” Psa 62:2, Psa 62:6; Psa 46:6. This expresses the confidence of one who is in danger of great calamities, and who puts his trust in the help of God alone.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv27, 31, 33, 37, 38 Thou wilt not leave[3] my soul in hell. This…
Thou wilt not leave[3] my soul in hell. This is also the Protestant translation; and the manner in which Beza translates it, is both very false and ridiculous, thou shalt not leave my carcass in the grave. For allowing that the Latin and Greek word, which is here translated hell, may signify sometimes, the grave; yet no excuse can be made for putting carcass, where the Greek, as well as Latin, signifies the soul. And for the doctrine of Christ’s descending into hell, even the learned Dr. Pearson on the Creed, observes with Catholics, that the article of the creed, wherein we say, he descended into hell, cannot be the same as to say, his body descended into the grave, because in the foregoing words we profess that he was dead and buried. (Witham) --- Beza plainly confesseth that he translateth the text thus: Thou shalt not leave my carcass in the grave, against the doctrine of purgatory, and Christ’s descending into hell, although he alloweth, that most of the ancient Fathers were in that error. Thus opposing himself to plain Scripture and to the ancient Fathers, perverting the former, and contemning the latter, to overthrow an article of the apostles’ creed. (He descended into hell. New Test. in 1556.)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
My soul in hell. Animam meam in Inferno, Greek: ten psuchen mou eis adou.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v37 D.—The effect produced by the address
D.—The effect produced by the address
Act_2:37-41
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The address, and the exhortations which followed it, resulted in the conversion of three thousand souls, who were added by Baptism to the disciples of Jesus
37Now when they heard this, they were pricked [pierced] in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38Then [But] Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in [upon, ἐπὶ] the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39For the promise is unto [for] you, and to [for] your children, and to [for] all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 40And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves [Be ye saved] from this untoward [perverse] generation. 41Then they that [om. that] gladly20 [om. gladly] received his [the, τὸν] word [and] were baptized: and the same day [on that day] there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act_2:37. Now when they heard this … what shall we do?—The address made a deep impression; the hearers, that is, a large part of them, were “pierced in the heart” (κατενύγησαν), and deeply moved; the sting in the concluding words of the apostle aided largely in producing this result. When we consider the impressions made by his address, we observe that it, primarily, affected the feelings of the hearers. Pain and anguish seized them, when they saw, as they now did, that they had mistaken, despised, ill-treated and crucified Jesus, whom they were at length compelled to recognize as the Messiah and their Lord. They had grievously sinned against God and his Anointed, and incurred the just penalty of such guilt. The effect was not, however, confined to these emotions, which had been produced by the light that was dawning upon them; their question: “What shall we do?” manifests that their will had also been powerfully influenced, insomuch that they apply in a confiding and even affectionate manner to the apostles for counsel, and are now desirous to do all that their duty and the will of God demand. While they thus turn to Peter and to the rest of the apostles as to brethren, and with the utmost candor, good will, and confidence, ask for advice, they furnish the evidence not only that they are deeply concerned for their salvation, but also that faith is springing up in their souls; they trust that God will yet forgive, and guide them in the right way.
Act_2:38. Repent, etc.—Peter gladly imparts the instructions which they seek, and may be regarded as fulfilling a special pastoral duty, when he explains the way of salvation to those who now were open to conviction, or were awakened. He prescribes a twofold duty, and promises a twofold gift. He demands that these persons should, (1) change their minds, (their whole moral state should undergo a change, μετανοεῖτε), and (2) be baptized in the name of Jesus (ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰηα. Χρ., as an expression of their faith in Jesus, or a recognition of him, and as a pledge of their submission to him as the Lord and Messiah). Peter assumes that his hearers already possess a certain amount of knowledge concerning Baptism as an outward act, having derived it from the well-known practice of John the Baptist, and also from the course pursued by Jesus himself. [Joh_4:1-2]. Peter’s demand, therefore, embraces a change of mind, and faith, in addition to the outward Baptism; the latter is here viewed, on the one hand, as a moral act of the person who is baptized, but, on the other hand, (in consequence of the promise that is immediately subjoined) unquestionably, also, as a means of grace proceeding from God. The apostle promises to those who repent, and receive Baptism, (1) the remission of sins, and (2) the gift of the Holy Ghost.—A general view is presented in Act_2:40, of additional statements and exhortations, by means of which, as Peter had reason to hope, his hearers would be conducted to an immediate and final decision, before the impressions which they had received, should fade away. It was the general purpose of his remarks to urge all who were awakened, to save themselves by accepting the offered grace, to withdraw from the perverse generation around them, and to avoid all participation in the guilt and ruin of the latter.
Act_2:39. For the promise is unto you.—The apostle, after having taught his hearers to hope with confidence that the same gift of the Holy Ghost which he and other disciples had already received, would be imparted to them, proceeds to exhibit the firm foundation of that hope. He specifies those for whom this promise of God was intended: (a) It concerns “you,” the Israelites; (b) also “your children,” i.e., it is not restricted to the present moment, but extends to the future, and comprehends the generations in Israel that are still unborn. And yet the whole extent of the promise has not been presented to their view; it belongs, further, to (c) πᾶσι τοῖς εἰς μακράν, all nations, i.e., heathens, dwelling at a distance, as many as God shall summon [or, call forward unto the kingdom of the Messiah (Meyer), προςκαλέσηται.—Tr.], Beza supposed that the words re- ferred to distant generations (longe post futuri), but these are already included in τέκνα ὑμῶν. Meyer and Baumgarten understand πᾶσι τοῖς ε. μ. on the other hand, as indicating Israelites dwelling in distant countries, and they allege that the context does not suggest that Gentiles are meant. Yet the latter will appear to be really the case, when the gradual enlargement of the circle in which Peter’s words move, is noticed. He unquestionably regards his hearers as representatives of the entire nation; the Jewish diaspora [Jam_1:1], moreover, did not need a special call, since those who were “scattered abroad” originally had an interest in the promise as fully as those who were accidentally here present. Hence the interpretation adopted by Brenz, Calvin, Bengel, Lange, etc.,—that the words refer to heathens—is preferable to any other.
Act_2:41. They received the word.—The ultimate result was wonderful; a multitude, consisting of about three thousand souls, promptly and sincerely received the word which they had heard, submitted to be baptized, and were added as new members to the church of Jesus. They were baptized in the course of “that day” by the twelve apostles.—That all who came together, Act_2:6, and had been hearers, were also converted, is, of course, not implied here, for those who mocked, Act_2:13, had also been hearers, and it cannot be assumed that all of these, without an exception, changed their views.—But it fully accorded with the commandment of Jesus, Mat_28:19, that all those who received the witness concerning Jesus in sincerity, should at once be baptized; the principle was recognized, that every one who honestly desired to be a disciple of Jesus, should be baptized; fuller instructions in the doctrine could afterwards be appropriately imparted.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The order of salvation is set forth by the apostle in terms that are brief, but in entire accordance with evangelical truth. After declaring emphatically that his hearers participated with others in the guilt of having crucified the Redeemer, he demands, as the condition of the remission of their sins, not fasting, or self-inflicted torments, nor meritorious works of any kind, but simply repentance and a change of mind, on the one hand, and, on the other, their prompt consent to receive Baptism in the name of Jesus, as the manifestation of their faith in Him as the Messiah.
2. Baptism, according to the view presented in this section, is a twofold act: a human and a divine. It is a human act, first, in so far as the individual who receives baptism, thereby confesses Jesus as his Lord (in other words, confesses that the triune God is his God), and pledges himself to serve Him; secondly, in so far as the Church of Christ which imparts Baptism to him, now receives him as a member, or incorporates him with itself, ver 41. Baptism is a divine act, in so far as God separates the individual from a perverse and sinful generation (σώθητε, in Act_2:40, implies that grace is a saving power to which man yields), remits his sins, and bestows the Holy Ghost upon him, Act_2:38. This ἄφεσις ἁμαρτιῶν is unquestionably connected more intimately and directly than the gift of the Holy Ghost with the baptismal act; the former, [ἄφεσις] namely, is indicated by the word εἰς [for the remission, etc.,] as the immediate purpose of Baptism, and as the promise inseparably connected with it, while general terms are all that now succeed, viz.: “and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” But these terms do not by any means imply that the apostle’s hearers should at once receive the Holy Ghost in and with Baptism itself.
3. The congregation, or the Church of Christ. The fact that the day of Pentecost is the birthday of the Church, has always been recognized. The latter was founded by or through the work of Jesus Christ, as a Prophet, High Priest, and King, through the calling and installation of the Apostles, and the gathering together of larger numbers of disciples, and through the institution of the Lord’s Supper and Holy Baptism. But after the Head of the Church was enthroned invisibly in heaven, and before the Pentecostal festival arrived, the Church of Jesus resembled the human body, after God had formed it of the dust of the ground, and before the spirit which was from God, was breathed into it; it was only after that influence reached man that he became a living soul, Gen_2:7. [Job_23:4]. The Church of Christ, viewed as the new collective person, was formed and set forth in the world; but it was now only, on the day of Pentecost, that the Spirit was suddenly breathed into it, and that it became a living soul. And from that moment the growth also of the Church of Christ could regularly proceed, by the assimilation and incorporation of other souls. Irenæus says: Ubi ecclesia, ibi et spiritus Dei; et ubi spiritus Dei, illic ecclesia et omnis gratia. The second member of this entire proposition is abundantly confirmed by the contents of the chapter before us, but the general terms of the former are not sustained, since, according to Acts 1. and Acts 2 ver 1 ff., the Church of Christ existed, even when the Spirit of God was not yet present. And this fact, which cannot be controverted, shows that at other times also, the Church of Christ may be brought into such a state, that the Spirit of God can with difficulty be found in it.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act_2:37. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.—The task of so combining and setting forth the law and the Gospel, that the truth shall, like a sharp-pointed arrow, pierce through the heart, is one of such importance and difficulty, that it cannot be accomplished by the mere reason and power of man. (Apost. Past.).—Repentance, like faith, is the result of the hearing of the word [Rom_10:17].—The consideration of the sufferings of Christ, which our sins caused him to endure, is adapted to awaken a sincere and deep sorrow on account of our sins. (Starke).—“Whom ye have crucified”—this accusation at the conclusion of Peter’s address, was the hook with which, as a true fisher of men, he reached theirhearts; it was the goad with which the exalted Saviour himself pierced their souls, so that it was hard for them to kick against it; it was the two-edged sword of God, which divided asunder the soul and spirit, the joints and marrow, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of their hearts.—Men and brethren, what shall we do?—Love awakens love; Peter’s gentle words: “Men and brethren”, find their echo in the hearts of his hearers.—What shall we do?—namely, in order to atone for the sins which we have committed, to escape the wrath of God, and to find that salvation which ye proclaim. It is the welcome question of the penitent heart that is seeking for mercy.
Act_2:38. Then Peter said unto them, Repent, etc.—When the fisher observes that his net is full of fishes, he is doubly careful in handling it. But it is a very sad spectacle, when a fisher of men has had no experience of his own, and, unable to give wise counsel to those who are awakened by his words, permits them to escape, or even casts them forth again from the net. (Apost. Past.).—If we desire to explain God’s word in a profitable manner, we must ourselves have first experienced its power. Peter had obtained a practical knowledge of repentance, after his fall, and had tasted the joy which the remission of sins produces, (ib.).—Like John the Baptist and Christ himself, the Church, too, begins her saving work by exclaiming aloud: “Repent!” For repentance is the beginning of all true Christianity. (Leonh. and Sp.).—And ye shall receive, etc.—When a pastor finds souls before him, on whom the word has made an impression, and who begin to inquire with deep seriousness, he may well spread out his sails with reanimated hope, and open his mouth with increased joy and confidence. To such souls we may promise many precious gifts, and need entertain no fear that God will withhold that which we have promised in his name, from those who submissively walk in the way which he appoints, (ib.).—There is no true repentance without a change of the heart and the mind.—Baptism is an efficient means of regeneration and the remission of sins. (Tit_3:5).—Days of humiliation which are appropriately kept, constitute a Pentecostal commemoration on which the divine blessing rests. The Holy Ghost does not proceed from us, but is a gift which we receive from God.—And thou, O Christian, art baptized. But thy Baptism should continue to manifest its efficacy in thee. Let each day appear to thy soul as thy baptismal day. Thou shouldst every morning be buried anew in thy Lord Jesus Christ, (Ahlfeld).—The men of Israel had asked: What shall we do? They are now told that they should, in a submissive spirit, yield to the operations of the Holy Ghost.—They would have made every sacrifice, in order to call back Jesus of Nazareth, to embrace the knees of Him who was crucified, to be raised up by him, and to hear him personally say; “Your sin is forgiven!” And now, behold, their desire was fulfilled. The triune God has connected his gracious presence, as revealed in the new covenant, with the water of Baptism. (Besser).—This doctrine must therefore abide, as one that is true and permanently established, namely, that the Holy Ghost is given through the ministry of the Church, that is to say, through the preaching of the Gospel and through Baptism. Let all those who desire the Holy Spirit, seek him there; let them not despise the little flock, in the midst of which the sound of the Gospel is heard; let them, much rather, join themselves unto those who are gathered together in the name of Christ, and let them assist in prayer. (Luther).—That we are saved, not so much through that which we do, as through that which the triune God does in us: I. Our repentance, which is commanded, is already a result of the preventing grace of God, by which he draws us to his Son; II. We are brought by our Baptism into the most intimate communion with Christ, our Saviour; III. Our conscious and continued preservation in this communion through the Word and the Sacraments, is one of the gracious operations of the Holy Ghost. (Langbein).
Act_2:39. For the promise is unto you, and to your children.—The gracious promises of God are of vast extent; hence we can repeat them with confidence to all who are willing to hear. (Apost. Past.).—And to your children.,—The church and the people of God had hither-to been so constituted, that not only adults but also little children belonged to the people of God, and with all these he made a covenant that he would be their God. Let us now suppose that on the day of Pentecost Peter had thus addressed the Jews: ‘Brethren, repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins; but your little children shall not be baptized; they shall remain in their sins, continue in their state of condemnation, and be counted among the people of Satan, until they grow up and reach the years of understanding.’ What answer would the devout Jews have made? (Bugenhagen).—And to all that are afar, etc.—However distant the heart may be from God, it can nevertheless hear his voice. (Starke).—God is still willing to call men unto himself, and he has still room for all who come to him, Luk_14:21. (Lindheim).
Act_2:40. And with many other words did he testify and exhort.—Testifying and exhorting belong together. Our exhortations must be founded on God’s word and testimony, and the divine testimony must be applied to the hearts of our hearers through the medium of our exhortations. (Apost. Past.).—Save yourselves, etc.—No result is produced by the operations of the Holy Ghost, as long as the soul resigns itself to the corrupting influences of society; Christians are required to shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, and to sever every tie that attaches them to a sinful world. (Apost. Past.).—True conversion to God implies an entire separation from the creature. Avoid the company of the corrupt; it is better for thee to dwell in solitude, than to be found in the congregation of the wicked. (Quesnel).
Act_2:41. Then they…received the word.—A prompt acceptance of the word is the beginning of true conversion. (Starke).—Salvation or damnation may be the consequence of a single sermon or exhortation that was accepted or rejected, (id.).—Were baptized.—They were delivered through the means of this saving flood from theperverse generation which was given over to destruction, and were added to the assembly of those who were gathered together in the true ark of salvation; 1Pe_3:20 f. (Besser).—Were added…souls.—This was an amazing draught of fishes on the part of Peter. (Apost. Past.).—If the apostles had made Holy Baptism, which is the true door of the kingdom of heaven, narrower, by instituting a baptismal examination, as those deluded spirits do, who degrade the Sacrament of Baptism to the rank of an exhibition of certificates of their full-grown “believers” (“it would be dreadful,” says Luther, “if I should be baptized on my faith”), then these three thousand could never have been added on the same day. (Besser).
ON THE WHOLE SECTION, Act_2:37-41. The Christian’s way of salvation: it is a life spent, I. In repentance toward God [Act_20:21], our Father in Christ; II. In faith toward the Son of God, our Redeemer; III. And sustained by the power of the Holy Ghost. (Leonh.).
The gracious work of the triune God: I. The Father decrees man’s redemption, in eternal love; II. The Son completes the work, in voluntary obedience; III. The Spirit appropriates that salvation to us through the Word and the Sacraments, in repentance and faith. (Leonh. and Sp.).
Repentance unto life [Act_11:18]: I. Repentance first of all produces deep grief (sorrow for sin); II. Then, it conducts to true blessedness (remission of sins); III. And the heart, strengthened anew by the message of peace, serves the Lord without ceasing, (ib.).
The effect produced by the apostolic discourse, an evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles.
What are the results of the faithful preaching of the Gospel? I. Deep feeling in the heart; II. Determination of the will.
Only be thou not so moved, that thou movest not from the place! The vital question: ‘What shall we do?’ The vast difference between the answer of John the Baptist, and that of the apostles of Jesus, to the same question: ‘What shall we do?’ Comp. Luk_3:10 ff. There, the Law, here the Gospel. The evangelical order of salvation, that is, calling, illumination, conversion, justification, renewal or sanctification. The Word and the Sacraments, the indispensable means of grace. Repentance and the remission of sins, both in the name of Jesus Christ; Act_2:38, and comp. Luk_24:47. The gift of the Holy Ghost, a general promise. The kingdom of God with its promises and blessings, governed by the law of progress. The wonders of the divine call: I. It exercises vast power, and is nevertheless consistent with the liberty of man; II. It embraces all things, and is nevertheless characterized by a gradual advance.
The opposite effects of conversion: I. It excludes, Act_2:40; II. It unites, Act_2:41. (Lechler).
The discourse on the day of Pentecost, addressed by the Spirit to the whole world: the office of the Spirit, manifested, I. In instructing, (Act_2:32; Act_2:37); II. In convincing of sin (Act_2:38); III. In consoling (Act_2:38-39). (C. Beck: Hom. Rep.).
Who is it that receives the Holy Ghost? I. All men may and should receive the gift; II. But it is bestowed on those alone who repent and believe. (Kapff.).
I, too, I. Can be baptized with the Holy Ghost; II. Such is my duty; III. And my desire. (Pressel).
The first sermon, and the first baptism. (Palmer).
It still continues to be the office of the Church of Christ, I. To receive from Christ; from the Holy Ghost; II. To possess fellowship; the Word; the Sacraments; III. To impart to those who repent and believe. (Beck: Hom. Rep.).
The Pentecostal, I. Question; II. Answer; III. Life. (Hamm.).
The effusion of the Holy Ghost, the act, and the glorification, of our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Haackh.).
The Pentecostal sermon of the Apostle, the testimony of the Holy Spirit delivered through the medium of the spirit of a man (Act_2:32; Act_2:41); I. It honors God; II. Instructs men; III. Convinces those who seek salvation; IV. Establishes and extends the Church. (Florey).
The gift of the Holy Ghost: I. How is the desire for it awakened in the heart? II. When is the heart prepared to receive it? III. What effects does it produce in us? (O. v. Gerlach).
The building up of the holy Pentecostal temple in the world and Christendom (in the Old Test, the counterpart the building of the tower of Babel; the type the building of Solomon’s temple); I. The preparations for building; II. The master who directs; III. The materials; IV. The plan; V. The completion of the building. (With references to the entire passage; A. Schmidt: Predigtstudien).
What shall I do, that I may receive the gift of the Holy Ghost? I. Look up, in faith, to the Son of God; he sends that gift from his throne in heaven, Act_2:33; II. Smite upon thy breast in sorrow, and see that thou repentest, Act_2:38; III. Attach thyself to the people of the Lord, and separate thyself from the worldly-minded, Act_2:38-40.
ON THE WHOLE PENTECOSTAL NARRATIVE.
The events of the day of Pentecost continue to occur even in our age, in order that the Christian Church may be sustained and extended: I. The commemoration of the wonderful works of God in different tongues, Act_2:11; II. The piercing of the heart, Act_2:37; III. The harmony of believers, and their steadfast continuance in the apostles’ doctrine, in breaking of bread, and in prayers, Act_2:1; Act_2:42 ff. (Schleiermacher).
How does the Holy Ghost in our day preserve and extend the Church? I. By proclaiming the wonderful works of God; II. By the powerful awakening of the minds of men; III. By the use of the appointed means of salvation. (Schütz).
It is the Spirit whose divine power creates man anew: I. He breathes into man a new breath of life, Act_2:2-4; II. Opens his mouth for the praise of God, Act_2:6-11; III. Brings loving companions to him [Gen_2:22]; Gen_2:14-21; Genesis 37-41.
“To us, O Holy Spirit, come!” Grant us, I. True repentance, Act_2:37-38; II. A joyful faith, Act_2:38-39; III. Brotherly love, Act_2:41 ff.
The festival of Pentecost, a spiritual vernal festival: I. The breezes of Spring the sound, as of a rushing wind, and the still, small voice from heaven, Act_2:2-4; II. The voices of Spring the animated voices of the apostles, praising the wonderful works of God, Act_2:6-11; Act_2:14 ff., and the trembling voices of awakened men, inquiring for the way of salvation, Act_2:37 ff.; III. The blossoms of Spring childlike faith, and brotherly love, Act_2:41 ff.
The wonderful draught of Peter, the fisher of men. [Mat_4:19]. (“Fear not: from henceforth thou shalt catch men,” Luk_5:10.): I. The deep sea before him (“Launch out into the deep,” Luk_5:4)
the agitated multitude of people in Jerusalem, Act_2:5-13, and, indeed, the vast sea of mankind, Act_2:39; II. The good net which he casts (“Cast the net on the right side” [Joh_21:6])
his discourse concerning Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Risen One, delivered with an earnestness that rebuked, and a love that melted, the heart, Act_2:14-40; III. The successful draught (“they enclosed a great multitude of fishes” [Luk_5:6]) on that day about three thousand souls at once, Act_2:41. And to-day, here, among you is there not perhaps such a soul here?
Footnotes:
[20]Act_2:41. ἀσμένως follows οὖν in the text. rec. [as in E. Syr.]. But it is a later addition, intended to add to the force of the text, and is wanting in important MSS. [in A. B. C. D., Cod. Sin.,] in ancient versions [Vulg., etc.,] and Church Fathers; hence Lachm. and Tisch. [and Alf.] cancel it.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv27, 28, 29, 36, 37, 38 wilt not leave my soul in hell--in its disembodied…
wilt not leave my soul in hell--in its disembodied state (see on Luk 16:23).
neither . . . suffer thine Holy One to see corruption--in the grave.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 25. Concerning him—Namely, Christ. The quotation is from Psalm…
25. Concerning him—Namely, Christ. The quotation is from Psalm xvi, which psalm the best Christian interpreters apply to Christ—truly, no doubt, if it be true that David, even as a representative man, speaks in the first person of the Messiah, the Holy One. (Act_2:27.) This is an epithet that no mere man is entitled to apply to himself; and if it could be truly applied to any being, that being would be entitled never to see corruption. If David were truly inspired, he could mean such a title only for some One higher than himself.
I foresaw—The prefix fore merely implies what is expressed in the following word, before.
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Right hand—As my right-hand man, that is, my aid or seconder.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv25–38 25. For David speaketh concerning him] The passage which…
25. For David speaketh concerning him] The passage which St Peter quotes is from Psa_16:8-11, and he argues that it could not be of himself that the Psalmist there spake, for they had evidence that the words could not be truly said of him; but that having regard to God’s promise he spake of Him who was to be born from his line, as identified with himself. St Peter’s quotation is from the LXX.
I foresaw] The Hebrew has, I set. Foresaw is here used as = saw.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38 (25) For David speaketh concerning him.—More accurately, in reference…
(25) For David speaketh concerning him.—More accurately, in reference to Him—i.e., in words which extended to Him. Reading Psalms 16 without this interpretation, it seems as if it spoke only of the confidence of the writer that he would be himself delivered from the grave and death. Some interpreters confine that confidence to a temporal deliverance; some extend it to the thought of immortality, or even of a resurrection. But Peter had been taught, both by his Lord and by the Spirit, that all such hopes extend beyond themselves—that the ideal of victory after suffering, no less than that of the righteous sufferer, was realised in Christ. The fact of the Resurrection had given a new meaning to prophecies which would not, of themselves, have suggested it, but which were incomplete without it.
He is on my right hand.—The Psalmist thought of the Eternal as the warrior thinks of him who, in the conflict of battle, extends his shield over the comrade who is on the left hand, and so guards him from attack. When the Son of Man is said to sit on the right hand of God (Psa_110:1; Mat_26:64) the imagery is different, and brings before us the picture of a king seated on his throne with his heir sitting in the place of honour by his side.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv25–38 Saith for speaketh, A.V.; he held for foresaw, A.V.…
Saith for speaketh, A.V.; he held for foresaw, A.V. The sixteenth psalm is ascribed to David in the title prefixed to it in the Hebrew and the LXX Without pronouncing the titles to be infallible, we must confess that they carry great weight with them in the absence of any strong internal evidence against them. Meyer speaks of the psalm as "certainly later than David," and Ewald and others ascribe it to the time of the Captivity; but Hitzig thinks the internal evidence is in favor of its belonging to the time before David ascended the throne ("Speaker"s Commentary"). We may safely rest on the authority of St. Peter hero and St. Paul, (Act_13:35, Act_13:36) and be satisfied that it is really David"s. The manner in which it is quoted by the two apostles is also very strong evidence that by the Jews of that day it was generally admitted to be a Messianic psalm. The following quotation is verbatim from the LXX.
Vers. 25-28. The parable of the Resurrection in David"s psalm.
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The apostle quotes one of the few utterances in the Old Testament which yield with any distinctness the hope of a life after the grave. But, speaking generally, the psalms, as the choicest expressions of the spiritual life of Israel, are "dark sayings" and "parables" of higher relations than those to which they immediately refer. In this psalm we find
I THE IMMEDIATE SENSE OF THE PRESENCE OF THE LIVING GOD. And this is a presence which, once enjoyed, carries with it the promise of its enjoyment forever. God can never be less to me than he is at the moment of my highest spiritual joy in the possession of him. This sense of his presence gives perfect security.
II THE EFFECT IS GLADNESS AND TRIUMPHANT HOPE. The soul will not be left in the gloom of Hades, to live on a life but the cold and shadowy reflection of the Bright life on earth. This cannot be believed and God"s goodness be believed. This cannot be believed and the filial feeling retained. At last all arguments for the immortality of the soul fall back upon this deepest basis, the ineradicable conviction of the goodness of God.
III THE WHOLE IS AN ARGUMENT FROM THE PAST TO THE FUTURE. "Thou madest knownthe ways of life; thou shalt make me full of gladness." And the argument may be applied in a wider sense than that present to the mind of the psalmist. For he was a prophet; and all prophecy is a germ which unfolds into endless meanings which history brings to light. The greatest and most signal fulfillment of the prophecy was in the resurrection of Christ.
IV THE FACTS, TOGETHER WITH THE PROPHECY, COMBINE IN ONE ARGUMENT FOR THE RESURRECTION. The facts were, that the risen Jesus had been seen by many. That now, after an interval from his departure, there had been a remarkable effusion of spiritual power. With these must be connected the fact that he had spoken of the coming of the Holy Ghost, the "promise of the Father." Putting the whole of the facts together, the conclusion was: Jesus, the despised and crucified, had been exalted to sovereign dignity, and in reference to Israel especially to the Messiahship; to be anointed Prophet, Priest, and King over his people for ever. The coincidence of extreme opposites is to be observed throughout the scheme of the gospel. It is illustrated, above all, in the humility and glorification, the weakness and power, the human contempt, and the Divine honor associated with the person of Jesus. J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv25, 29, 33, 37, 38 For David speaketh concerning Him.
Act_2:25-28
For David speaketh concerning Him.
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A prophetic panorama of the life of Jesus
These words of David show Jesus--
I. In His relation to the Father.
1. He had a constant recollection of God. I saw the Lord always, etc. In His early life He said, Wist ye not that I must be about My Fathers business? And when the end drew near He said, I must work, etc. His faithful people are in this respect like Him in their degrees.
2. He had a constant assurance of the Divine presence--He is on My right hand. He could speak to the Father anywhere, and be sure that He was always heard. It is granted also to His true disciples to have like gracious freedom of access.
3. He fully accepted and entered into the Divine purpose as to His life. He was not to be moved. The evils through which He had to pass would have shaken one less fixed in soul. So may each of us overcome in the day of conflict.
II. In a state of delight. Therefore did My heart rejoice. Of this delight note--
1. That it was reasonable. Therefore. Why? Because Jesus stood in a proper relation to God. Some seek delight when they are not right towards God. This is irrational.
2. Affected the whole man. The heart rejoiced, and the tongue was glad, and the flesh rested. So His servant Paul, though always sorrowful, was always rejoicing. Oh, blessed paradox!
3. Tinged the dark future with light. My flesh also shall rest in hope. An unknown experience lay before Him in prospect, and He naturally shrank from it; but such was His delight that He could steadily go forward to His appointed lot. He knew that no evil could befall Him, though He must pass through the kingdom of the dead. So are His servants upheld and comforted in death by thoughts of heaven.
4. Was brought to its fulness by His resurrection and ascension. Ways of life were made known to Jesus by experience when He laboured among men. When men thought He had gone finally in the way of death, the way of victorious life was made known in His resurrection. Thus was His joy enhanced in ways and degrees known only to Himself. And that joy reached its fulness when He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Full of joy with Thy countenance. His people are to sit with Him upon His throne, as He sits on the Fathers throne. Then they shall hunger no more, etc. Conclusion: See here--
1. The unity of Holy Scripture. Christ is its chief subject. Its main purpose is the setting forth of the truth concerning Him. Peter pointed out allusion to Him where it had not been previously seen; and from His Person there shines a light in which many obscurities disappear.
2. The privileges of those who are complete in Christ. By His grace they are brought into proper relations to God, and have thenceforward meat to eat which the world knows not of His salvation transcends all other good. (W. Hudson.)
Thou shalt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption.
Christs descent into hell and rising again from the dead
St. Peter, in a short but notable sermon, demonstrates Jesus to be the Messiah. The Holy One of God, the Lord, the Christ.
1. From the miracles He did in His lifetime, they being witnesses of the same (Act_2:22).
2. By the fulfilling of prophecy. In being not only rejected by His own, but crucified by them, according to the determinate counsel of God (Act_2:23).
3. From the wonders He did, not in life only, but in death. He brake through the bonds of it; the grave could not detain His body, nor Hades His soul. And this according to prophecy and promise (Psa_16:10), which is the apostles quotation and my text. In discussing this doctrine, I will show--
I. What is the meaning of Christs soul being in hell? For, with respect to His Godhead, we may say of Him in the words of the Psalmist (Psa_139:7-8). But our discourse is of the soul of the Messiah, and that was for a while in hell; not in a state of torment. But the soul of the Messiah, when He gave up His ghost, passed into the receptacle of blessed souls, into that paradise where the redeemed and pardoned are lodged, and where with Him went the repenting thief on the cross (Luk_23:43). It is this receptacle of good souls, this paradise for those that die in Christ, that is called Hades; that is, an invisible state, a being, though in a remote region, which eye cannot reach or penetrate. I confess it is a hard matter to beat out of the vulgar heads the gross conception of the word hell, which sounds to them no other than horror, and blackness of darkness, and fire and brimstone. A place very improper to look for the soul of Christ when departed out of His body, for Him and His betrayer Judas to meet in the same place. He that had by death purchased heaven for others, Himself after death to descend into hell. This, therefore, cannot be; no, is not the meaning of the word hell where Christ went. He came not near that abyss, nor was at all among those reprobated crew. The true, easy, and natural sense of Hades is an invisible region. Objection: If Hades means paradise, why should Christ pray against His being left in Hades, as He hopes His body shall not see corruption? Answer: He doth not pray thus, as if it were not well with His soul in Hades, as to what He enjoyed. For His soul was the soul of the Messiah, the soul of a Redeemer, a soul that was to conquer death, and not to stay any considerable time from His body born of the Virgin Mary. He had work to do which other souls had not; He was to rise for others justification. He was to ascend into the holy of holiest, as the great High Priest of our souls; and therefore He must return to His body, that He may as God-Man in human flesh for ever enter into glory. As if He should say, Thou wilt not leave Me unto death; that is, My soul in separation. This would be the triumph of the devil.
II. The occasion and reason of this article being inserted in our creed. Not that it was there at first, but it came in afterward, and that occasioned by a new heresy that started up in the Church; and therefore to obviate that this article was added as a truth provable from Scripture, that Christ went into Hades. The error was this, that Christ had no proper intellectual or rational soul. Which heresy was begun and propagated by one Apollonius and his followers. That the Word or the Divinity supplied the place of a soul, and that therefore He was not properly dead when His body was in the grave. But in opposition to this error, the Christians assert that Christ had a human soul, that it underwent all the offices of one in the body and out of the body. And when He was crucified, and by the pains of that disposed for a resignation of His Spirit, He gave it up to God, and waited upon His disposal of it. For all souls are to return to the Father of spirits, to be consigned to the state or place they are meet for. And the soul of the Messiah went to the apartment of separated souls, that is, of good and righteous ones.
1. That we are assured that we are when we go hence. And the disciples of Christ go to Paradise, as He did. I do not say they go into the heaven of heavens, for that Christ did not Himself until He reassumed His body. But when they are not as to mortal eye they shall be. This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. Thy soul and Mine shall go together to the assembly of the firstborn. The dissolution of our bodies shall not break off our being; the soul, the better part, is, even in the state of separation. They enter into rest, not a cessation of being or a rest of sleep. But they rest in hope, they live in a joyful expectation of a more glorious appearance. Our Saviours return to reassume His body gave an ocular demonstration of the immortality both of body and soul.
2. A God incarnate takes actual care both of our bodies and souls, in every state after we come into the body; in life, in death, and after death. A God incarnate, I say; for so was the Lord of glory that was crucified for us, that died, and rose again from the dead (Joh_10:17-18). And this power He exerts not only for Himself, but all His followers. He is with them in life, in death, in the body, and out of the body. He dwells with them by His Spirit while in the tabernacle of the flesh; and when out of the body they are with the Lord. He beams His light of glory into the regions they are in, for a while, as separate from the body. He never leaves them nor forsakes them. St. Stephen, under a shower of stones, looked up stedfastly into heaven, arid saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God (Act_7:55). And some such like manifestations separate souls have of their glorified Saviour, which makes them wait with joy for a farther salvation.
3. That a separation hereafter will be ever made betwixt the righteous and unrighteous. Our Saviour in the state of separation had nothing to do with the damned; He gave them no visit. He went not into hell in this sense.
4. Nothing shall withhold us from returning unto the body when the time of reunion comes.
III. The incorruptibility of His body. It was not to see corruption. Though the soldiers gave Him His death wounds, yet they did not fester, nor His body see corruption. The immaculate Lamb was without spot; He was pierced, but He was not putrified; He was butchered, but not blemished. His body was cast into the grave, but it did not see corruption. Worms were neither His brothers nor sisters. His body was of a purer make, and had none of that taint that could attract such vermin. I shall represent to you some considerations why Christs body was not to see corruption.
1. Because He was in three days to reassume it, according to promise, and His own prediction. His body was not to be a mortal body as ours, to return to dust. That was the melancholy sentence passed on the posterity of Adam, but not to reach him that is the second Adam, who was though the son of Adam, as says St. Luke, yet not according to an ordinary generation. He had said, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again; and He spake, says the text, of the temple His body (Joh_2:21).
2. His body was not to see corruption because He was the second Adam, and was not under the guilt of the first. He was the Lord from heaven and the Lord of glory; and His body was to be a glorious body. His body was never stained by sin or sickness, and His death wounds only opened a passage for His Spirit; but the cabinet, though broken or bruised, was not disjointed. The temple was destroyed without dislocation of any part. The first Adam brought in sin and death into the world; the second, life and immortality. An argument which the apostle pursues, in 1Co_15:47, The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. Our natures, as derivative from a sinner, are decreed to death and dissolution, and must sink into the same principle of which they are compounded, but the second Man is the Lord from heaven--the Lord of life and immortality. And therefore, in verse 45, the apostle styles Him a quickening Spirit, keeping His body tenantable, though He went out of it; and not only so, but He was Lord of His own body, and none other had power and dominion over it. None, nor anything, could assault His body laid up as in a repository for His returning.
3. His body was not to see corruption because He was, as the Christian High Priest, to enter into the Holy of Holiest, as the first fruits of the dead. So our apologist, St. Peter, verse 29, etc. This spiritual High Priest must enter into the Holy of Holiest, with all His body and soul clean, and clear, pure and perfect, radiant and glorious; the true regalia that adorned the investiture of this High Priest. The Christian High Priest was to be a freeman, not a prisoner. He was not to enter with shackles, but rather with the armature of a glorious Victor (Eph_6:13).
The doctrinal part of this sermon speaks comfort to us all that should enliven us and fill us with joy in believing.
1. The same Lord Jesus that raised and reassumed His own body, shall raise ours, and make them like His glorious body (Php_3:21).
2. Because Christ is our Lord, He hath redeemed our bodies by His precious blood, and He sacrificed His body for ours, and we have dedicated our bodies to Him, and He is Lord of our bodies. Not only our souls, but our bodies are redeemed by Him from the grave, and here is the state of the dead.
3. That Christ raised His own body. But I am not preaching to infidels, but believers: and we know that because Christ is risen we also shall arise, and our bodies shall be made like Christs body. For--
4. Christ will do this great work by taking away all those corruptible qualities and infirmities to which our bodies are liable, both living and dead. That this vile body may be refined, and free from decay, being made like the glorified body of Jesus after the resurrection.
5. The instrument by which our Lord shall effect this wonder, even by His omnipotence. Why, says the same apostle, should it be thought impossible that God should raise the dead?
6. We conclude that a spiritual resurrection in this life must precede the blessed and glorious resurrection to eternal life. It is for the sake of a raised mind that the body shall be like Christs glorious body; for we must not expect to have a part in the resurrection of the just, unless in this life we commence such men. (W. Allen, D. D.)
Thou hast made known to me the ways of life.--
The experience and prospect of a real Christian
This exulting language (quoted from Psa_16:11) may be adopted by those who believe in Christ, and have a lively sense of interest in His salvation.
I. The language of devout gratitude. Thou hast made known, etc. Compared with such a communication, every other kind of knowledge is insignificant. The ways which are worthy to be called ways of life are made known by none except the Almighty. The life to which they lead us is the life of faith, holiness, and peace in the present world, and the life of inconceivable excellence and delight in the world to come. The ways of life may therefore justly be called the ways of God. He has prepared these ways; in the gospel He reveals them; and, by the influence of His Spirit, He conducts into them. Nor are these ways merely made known to a Christian--he occupies them, and recommends them; they are his delight; in them he meets God, and communes with Him. Thus he grows in grace and likeness to the Divine image.
II. The language of devout expectation. Thou shalt make me, etc.
1. Christians already find that sin has lost its commanding influence; but they anticipate its entire extinction and their complete deliverance from all evil.
2. Christians anticipate a removal out of the world.
3. Christians anticipate the successful termination of their conflict with invisible principalities and powers.
4. Christians anticipate eternal intercourse with each other, and with all the angels of God.
5. Hence we are led to the richest view of the prospect with which Christians are indulged--they anticipate a vision all Divine. Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy countenance. (O. A. Jeary.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v37 Chapter 7
Chapter 7
THE FIRSTFRUITS OF PENTECOST.
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Act_2:37-39
THE sermon of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost and the sermons of our Lord present a striking contrast. Our Lords sermons were of various kinds; they were at times consoling, yet full of instruction and direction. Such, for instance, was the Sermon on the Mount. At other times His discourses were stern and full of sharp reproof. Such was His teaching in His parting addresses to the Jews delivered in the Temple, recorded in the synoptic Gospels. Yet they apparently failed, for the time at least, in producing any great practical results. In fact, His Temple discourses served only to irritate His foes, and arouse their hostility.
St. Peter delivered a sermon on the day of Pentecost which was quite as stern and quite as calculated to irritate, and yet that discourse was crowned with results exceeding those ever achieved by our Lord, though His discourses far surpassed St. Peters in literary skill, in spiritual meaning, in eternal significance and value. Whence came this fact? It simply happened in fulfilment of Christs own prophecy recorded by St. John, where He predicts that His Apostles shall achieve greater works than He had achieved, "because I go unto the Father." {Joh_14:12} The departure of Christ into the true Holy of Holies opened the channel of communication between the eternal Father and the waiting Church; the Spirit was poured out through Christ as the channel, and the result was conviction and conversion; leading the people to cry out, in response to St. Peters simple statement of facts, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"
I. One of the first qualifications absolutely necessary, if a man is to write history tellingly and sympathetically, is a historical imagination. Unless a man can, from a multitude of separate and often independent details, reconstruct the past, realise it vividly for himself, and then depict it with life and force to his readers, he will utterly fail as a historian. The same historical imagination is needed, too, if we wish to realise the full force of the circumstances we are considering. It is hard even for those who do possess such an imagination to throw themselves back into all the circumstances and surroundings of the Apostles at Pentecost; but when we succeed in doing so, then all these circumstances can only be explained on the supposition-the orthodox and catholic supposition-that there must have happened a supernatural occurrence, and that there must have been granted a supernatural power and blessing on the day of Pentecost.
The courage of St. Peter when preaching his sermon is, as we have already noticed, a proof of the descent of the Spirit. The resurrection of his Master had doubtless inspired him with all the power of a new idea. But St. Peters history, both before the day of Pentecost and after it, amply proved that mere intellectual conviction could be united with grievous moral cowardice. We cannot doubt, for instance, that St. Peter was intellectually convinced of the justice of the Gentile claims, and their right to a full equality with the Jews, when St. Paul felt compelled to withstand him at Antioch. Yet he was possessed with no such spiritual enthusiasm on the question as that which moved St. Paul or else he never would have fallen into such lamentable hypocrisy as he displayed on that occasion. The gift of the Spirit was needed by St. Peter before an intellectual conviction could be transformed into an overwhelming spiritual movement which swept every obstacle from its path. Again, the conduct of the people is a proof of the descent of the Spirit. St. Peter assails their actions, charges upon them the murder of the Messiah, and proclaims the triumph of Christ over all their machinations. Yet they listen quietly, respectfully, without opposition, as mobs do not usually listen to speeches running counter to their prejudices. Some wondrous phenomena such as the gift of tongues, combined with divinely persuasive eloquence, flinging the aegis of their protection over the preachers defenceless person, must have so struck the minds of these fanatical Jews as to keep them quiet while St. Peter spoke. But the result of St. Peters speech was the chiefest evidence that something extraordinary must have happened at Jerusalem in the earliest days of the Churchs history. Secular history tells us, as well as the sacred narrative, that Christianity rose again from what seemed its grave at the very spot where, and at the very moment when, the crucifixion had apparently extinguished it for ever.
The evidence of the historian Tacitus is conclusive upon this point. He lived and flourished all through the time when St. Pauls ministry was most active. He was born about the year 50, and had every opportunity of becoming acquainted with the facts concerning the execution of Christ and the rise of Christianity, as they were doubtless laid up in the imperial archives at Rome. His testimony, written at a period when, as some maintain, neither the Acts of the Apostles nor the Gospels of the New Testament were in existence, exactly tallies with the account given by our sacred books. In his "Annals," book 15. chap. 44, he writes concerning Christianity: "Christus, from whom the name of Christian has its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out in Judaea." So that the pagan historian who knew nothing about Christianity save what official pagan documents or popular report told him, agrees with the Scriptures that Christianity was checked for a moment by the death of its founder, and then gained its earliest and most glorious triumph on the very scene of its apparent defeat where-and this is a very important part of the argument-previously the most marvellous wisdom and the most striking signs and wonders had utterly failed to gain any large measure of success. Whence, then, can we explain this fact, or how account for this conscience-stricken cry, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" unless we assume what the narrative of our text declares, that the Holy Ghost, in all His convincing and converting power, had been poured out from on high?
And surely our own personal experience daily corroborates this view. There may be intellectual, conviction and controversial triumph without any spiritual enthusiasm. Sermons may be clever, powerful, convincing, and yet, unless the Spirits power be sought, and an unction from on high be vouchsafed, no spiritual harvest can be expected. St. Peters sermon, if viewed from a human standpoint, could no more have been expected to succeed than the Masters. The one new element, however, which now entered into the combination, explains the difference. The Spirit was now given, and men therefore hearkened to the servant where they had turned a deaf ear to the Master. It is a lesson much needed for our generation, especially in the case of the young, and in our Sunday-school system. The religious instruction of youth is much more carefully looked after than it used to be. Primers, handbooks, elementary commentaries, catechists manuals, are published in profusion, and many think that provided a Sunday or day school distinguishes itself in the examination list, which is now the one great educational test, religious knowledge has been secured. The contrast between St. Peters success and our Lords failure warns us that there is a vast difference between religious life and religious knowledge. The most irreligious people, the most bitter opponents of Christianity, have been produced by schools and systems where religious knowledge was literally crammed down the throats of the children in a hard, mechanical, unloving style. But let there be no mistake. I do not object to organised religious instruction. I think, in fact, that a vast amount of Sunday-school teaching is utterly worthless for want of such organisation. Our Sunday-school system will, in fact, be thoroughly inefficient, if not useless, as a system, till every Sunday-school has its teachers meeting presided over by a competent instructor, who will carefully teach the teachers themselves in a well-ordered, systematic course. But after all this has been done, we must still remember that Christianity is something more than a system of doctrine, or a Divine scheme of philosophy, which can be worked up like Aristotles "Ethics" or Mills "Logic." Christianity is a Divine power, a power which must be sought in faith, in humiliation, and in prayer; and till the Holy Ghost be duly honoured, and His presence be humbly sought, the finest system and the most elaborate organisations will be found devoid of any fruitful life and vigour.
II. There are many other points of interest in this passage; let us take them one by one as they offer themselves. The people, seized by conviction and in acute pain of conscience, cried out, "What shall we do?" St. Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptised." Repent is the Apostles first rule, -contrasting very strongly with some modern systems which have been devised on a plan very different from that of our Lord and of His Apostles. The preaching of the New Testament is ever the same. John the Baptist came, and his teaching was briefly summed up thus, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." John was removed, and Christ came. The light ceased to shine, and then the true light stood revealed; but the teaching was the same, and the Messiah still proclaims, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." The system of teaching to which I refer parries the force of our Lords example, as well as of the Baptists words, by saying, that was the old dispensation. Till Christ died, the new covenant did not come into force, and therefore Christ taught in His public ministry merely as a Jew, speaking on Jewish grounds to Jews. But let us see whether such an explanation, which makes void our Lords personal teachings and commands, is tenable. A reference, to this passage sufficiently settles this point. The Master departs and the Spirit is outpoured, and still the apostolic and inspired teaching is just the same. The cry of the multitude, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" produces, from the illuminated Apostle, the same response, "Repent," coupled with a new requirement, "Be baptised, every one of you, for the remission of sins." And the same message has ever since continued to be the basis of all real spiritual work. Simon Magus is found by St. Peter with his mind intellectually convinced, but with his affections untouched and his heart spiritually dead. To Simon Magus Peter delivers the same message, "Repent of this thy wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee." John Wesley was one of the greatest evangelists that ever lived and worked for God. During the whole sixty years of his continuous labours, from the time when he taught his pupils in Oxford College and the prisoners in Oxford jail down to the last sermon that he preached, his ministry and teaching were modelled upon that of the New Testament, -it was ever a preaching of repentance. He counted it utterly useless and hopeless to preach the comforts of the gospel before he had made men feel and wince beneath the terrors of the law and the sense of offended justice. Modern times have seen, however, a strange perversion of the gospel method, and some have taught that repentance was not to be urged or even mentioned to Christian congregations.
This is one of the leading points which the Plymouth Brethren specially press in the course of their destructive and guerilla-like assaults upon the communions of reformed-Christendom. The apostolic doctrine of repentance finds no place in their scheme; while again their teaching on this subject, or something very like it, is often reproduced, all unconsciously, it may be, by the conductors of those mission services so common throughout the country. It is as hard now to preserve a just balance in teaching, as it was in the days of St. Paul and St. James. It is no easy matter so to preach repentance as not to discourage the truly humble soul; so to proclaim Gods forgiving love as not to encourage presumption and carelessness.
I have said, indeed, that the doctrine of the Plymouth body on this point is a modern one. It is modern, indeed, when compared with the genuine teaching of the New Testament; but still it is, in fact, ancient, for it dates back to the Antinomians, who, two hundred and fifty years ago, created a great sensation among the Puritan divines. A brief historical narrative will prove this. The sermons of Dr. Tobias Crisp and Fishers "Marrow-of Modern Divinity" are books whose very titles are now forgotten, and yet the diligent student will there find all those ideas about repentance, justification, and assurance which are now produced as marvellous new truths, though reprobated two centuries ago as earnestly by Churchmen like Bull, Beveridge, and Stillingfleet, as by Howe, and Baxter, and Williams among the Nonconformists and Puritans. The denial of the necessity for Christian repentance was based, by the logical Antinomians of the olden time, upon the theory that Christ bore in His own person the literal sins of the elect; so that an elect person has nothing whatsoever to do with his sins save assure himself by an act of faith, that his sins were forgiven and rendered completely non-existent eighteen hundred years ago.
The formula which they delight in and I have heard used, even by Churchmen, is this: "Believe that you are saved, and then you are saved." The result of this teaching in every age, wherever it has appeared, is not far to seek. The main stress of all Christian effort is devoted not to the attainment of likeness to Christ, or that pursuit of holiness without which the beatific vision of God is impossible. The great point urged by this party in every age is the supreme importance of assurance which they identify with saving faith. Therefore it is that they discourage, aye, and go farther, utterly reject, all teaching of repentance. The words of one of those old writers put the matter in its simplest form. In the reign of James II and William III there arose a great controversy in London touching this very point. Dr. Williams, the founder of the well-known library in Grafton Street, London, was the leader on one side, while the sermons of Tobias Crisp were the rallying-point on the other. Williams and Baxter maintained the importance of repentance and the absolute necessity of good works for salvation. On the opposite side, the views and doctrines which we have seen pressed in modern times were explicitly stated, but with far more fearlessness and logical power than are ever now used. Here are a few of the propositions which Dr. Williams felt himself bound to refute. I shall give them at some length, that my readers may see how ancient is this heresy. "The elect are discharged from all their sins by the act of God laying their sins upon Christ on the cross, and consequently that the elect upon the death of Christ ceased to be sinners, and ever since sins committed by them are none of their sins, they are the sins of Christ." Again, the Antinomians taught, in language often still reproduced, "Men have nothing to do in order to salvation, nor is sanctification a jot the way of any person to heaven. Nor can the duties and graces of the elect, nor even faith itself, do them the least good or prevent the least evil; while, on the other hand, the grossest sins which the elect commit cannot do them the least harm, nor ought they to fear the least hurt from their own sins." While again, coming still closer to the point on which we have been insisting, they declared, according to Dr. Williams, that "the covenant of grace hath no condition to be performed on mans part, even though in the strength of Christ. Neither is faith itself the condition of this covenant, but all the saving benefits of this covenant actually and really belong to the elect before they are born, yea, and even against their will"; while as to the nature of faith, they taught "that saving faith is nothing else but our persuasion or absolute concluding within ourselves that our sins are pardoned, and that Christ is ours." Hence they derived a dogma of their own, directly and plainly contradictory of the teaching of the New Testament on the subject of repentance, "that Christ is offered to blasphemers, murderers, and the worst of sinners, that they, remaining ignorant, unconvinced, and resolved in their purpose to continue such, may be assured they have a full interest in Christ; and this by only concluding in their own minds that Christ is theirs." It is plain to any one fully acquainted with modern religious thought, that all the special doctrines of Plymouthism concerning justification, repentance, and faith, are involved in the statements which Dr. Williams set himself to refute, and which he does refute most ably, in works long since consigned to the oblivion of our great libraries, though well worthy of careful study amid the troubles of the present age. Assurance, a present knowledge of a present salvation, present peace, these are the only topics pressed upon the unconverted. If the multitude at Jerusalem had asked the same question from our modern teachers which they asked from the Apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" the reply would have been, "Do you know you are saved? If not, believe that you are saved, believe that Jesus died for you." But not one of them would have given the apostolic reply, "Repent, and be baptised, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost," because the doctrine of repentance and the value and use of the sacrament of baptism find no place in this new-fangled scheme.
III. "Repent, and be baptised, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins." These words form the basis of a well-known clause in the Nicene Creed, which says, "I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins." They suggest in addition some very important discussions. The position which baptism occupies in apostolic teaching is worthy of careful notice. It is pressed upon the multitude as a present duty, and as a result there were three thousand persons baptised in that one day. It was just the same with Cornelius the centurion, and with the Philippian jailer whom St. Paul converted. Baptism did not then succeed a long course of preparatory training and instruction, as now is the case in the mission field. When men in apostolic times received the rudiments of the faith, the sacrament of baptism was administered, as being the channel or door of admission into Christs Church; and then, being once admitted into Gods house, it was firmly believed that the souls life would grow and develop at a vastly accelerated rate. A grave question here suggests itself, whether baptism of converts from paganism is not often too long delayed? The apostles evidently regarded the Church as a hospital where the wounds of the soul were to be healed, as a Divine school where the ignorance of the soul was to be dissipated, and therefore at once admitted the converts to the sacrament upon the profession of their rudimentary faith. The church soon reversed this process, and demanded an amount of spiritual knowledge and a development of spiritual life as the conditions of baptism, which should have been looked for as the result of admission within her sacred ranks, forgetful of that great missionary law laid down by the Master Himself, which places baptism first and teaching afterwards, "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." We freely admit that there may have been a quickened spiritual vitality, a stronger spiritual life, in the case of the earliest converts, enabling them in the course of a few hours to attain a spiritual level which demanded a more prolonged effort on the part of the later disciples. When we come to the times of the later apostolic age, and inquire from such a book as the lately-discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," what the practice of the Church was then, we see that experience had taught a more regular, a less hasty course of action. The law of Baptism in the "Didache," as the "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" is usually called, runs thus: "Now concerning baptism, thus baptise ye; having first uttered all these things, baptise into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in running water. But if thou hast not running water, baptise in other water; and if thou canst not in cold, then in warm. But if thou hast neither, pour water upon the head thrice, into the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But before the baptism let the baptiser and the baptised fast, and whatever others can; but the baptised thou shalt command to fast for one or two days before."
From these words it is plain that the immediate baptism of converts had ceased probably with the first organisation of the Church. A pause was instituted between the first conviction of the truth and the complete initiation which baptism involved, but not such a period of delay as the months and even years over which the preparation for baptism was subsequently spread. This delay of baptism sprang out of a mistaken view of this Divine sacrament. Men came to look on it as a charm, whereby not merely admission was obtained to the Divine society which our Lord had founded, but also as bringing with it a complete purgation from the sins of a careless life. Men postponed it, therefore, to the very last, so that all sins might be swept away at once. The Emperor Constantine was a good example of this mischievous extreme. He was a man who took a kind of interest in theological matters. Like our own King James I, he considered it his duty to settle the religious affairs of his empire, even as his predecessors had done in the days of paganism. He presided over Church councils, dictated Church formularies, and exercised the same control in the Church as in the State, being all the time unbaptised. He was scarce aught but a pagan too in disposition and temper. He retained pagan symbols, titles, and observances, and imbrued his hands, Herod-like, in the blood of his own family. Yet he delayed his baptism to the very last, under the notion that then there could be thus effected at one stroke the complete removal of the accumulated sins of a lifetime.
IV. The comparison of the passage just quoted from the "Teaching of the Apostles" with the words of my text suggest other topics. The Plymouth Brethren, at least in some of their numerous ramifications, and other sects, have grounded upon the words, "be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ," a tenet that baptism should not be conferred in the name of the Trinity, but in that of Jesus alone. It is indeed admitted that while our Lord commanded the use of the historic baptismal formula in the concluding words of St. Matthews Gospel, the formula itself is never expressly mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. Not merely on the day of Pentecost, but on several other occasions, Christian baptism is described as if the Trinitarian formula was unknown. In the tenth chapter Cornelius and his household are described as "baptised in the name of Jesus Christ." In the nineteenth chapter St. Paul converts a number of the Baptists disciples to a fuller and richer faith in Christ. They were at once "baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus." But a reference to the newly-discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" explains the difficulty, offering an interesting example of the manner in which modern discoveries have helped to illustrate and confirm the Acts of the Apostles. In the "Didache," as in the Acts, the expression "baptism in the name of the Lord" is used. The "Didache" lays down with respect to the communion, "Let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist except those baptised into the name of the Lord." Yet this does not exclude the time-honoured formula of Christendom. The same apostolic manual lays down the rule, a little before this prohibition which we have just quoted, "Baptise into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," and then in the tenth chapter describes baptism thus administered in the threefold name, as baptism in the name of the Lord; and thus it was doubtless in the case of the Acts. For the sake of brevity St. Luke speaks of Christian baptism as baptism in the name of Christ, never dreaming at the same time that this was exclusive of the divinely appointed formula, as certain moderns have taught. The Acts of the Apostles, and the "Didache" prove their primitive character, and show that they deduce their origin from the same early epoch, because they both describe Christian baptism as performed in the name of Christ; and yet this fact does not exclude, according to either, the use of the threefold Name. It is evident that, whether in the Acts or in the "Didache," baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost was regarded as baptism especially in the name of Jesus Christ, because while the Father and the Spirit were known to the Jews, the one new element introduced was that of the name of Jesus, whom God had made both Lord and Christ. Baptism in the Triune name was emphatically baptism in the name of the Lord. This passage, when compared with the "Didache," sheds light on another point. The mode wherein baptism should be administered has been a point often discussed. Some have maintained the absolutely binding and universal character of immersion; others have stood at the opposite extreme, and upheld the method of sprinkling. The Church of England, in union with the ancient Church, has laid down no hard-and-fast rule on the subject. She recognises immersion as the normal idea in a warm Eastern climate, but she allows pouring (not sprinkling) of water to be substituted for immersion, which has, as a matter of fact, taken the place in the Western Church of the more regular and ancient immersion. The construction of the ancient Churches, with their baptisteries surrounded with curtains, and the female assistants for the service of their own sex, amply proves that in the ancient Church, as to this day in the Eastern Church, baptism was ordinarily administered by immersion. The Church proved its Eastern origin by the mode wherein its initial sacrament was at first applied. But it also showed its power of adaptation to Western nations by allowing the alternative of pouring water when she dealt with the needs of a colder climate. Yet from the beginning the Church cannot have made the validity of her sacrament depend upon the quantity of water that was used. Take the cases reported in the Acts of the Apostles, or the rules prescribed in the apostolic manual, the "Didache." In the latter it is expressly said that pouring with water shall suffice if a larger quantity is not at hand. On the day of Pentecost it was clearly impossible to immerse three thousand persons in the city of Jerusalem. The Ethiopian eunuch baptised by St. Philip in the wilderness could not have been immersed. He came to a stream trickling along, scarce sufficient to lave his feet, or perhaps rather to a well in the desert; the water was deep down, and reached only, as in the case of Jacobs well, by a rope or chain. Even if the water could have been reached, common sense, not to speak of any higher motive, would have forbidden the pollution of an element so needful for human life. The baptism of the eunuch must have been by pouring or affusion, as must also have been the case with the Philippian jailer. The difficulties of the case are forgotten when people insist that immersion must necessarily have been the universal rule in ancient times. Men and women were baptised separately, deaconesses officiating in the case of the women. When immersion was used the men descended naked, or almost so, into the baptistery, which was often a building quite separate and distinct from the church, with elaborate arrangements for changing garments. The Church, in the days of earliest freedom and purity, left her children free in those points of minor detail, refusing to hamper herself or limit her usefulness by a restriction which would have equally barred entrance to her fold in the burning deserts or in the ice-bound regions of the frozen north, where baptism by immersion would have been equally impossible.
Again, the extent of the baptismal commission is indicated in this passage. "Make disciples of all the nations by baptism" are the words of our Lord. "Be baptised, every one of you, for the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off," is St. Peters application of this passage. St. Peters language admits of various interpretations. Like much of Scripture, the speaker, when uttering these words, meant probably one thing, while the words themselves mean something much wider, more catholic and universal. When Peter spake thus he proclaimed the worldwide character of Christianity, just as when he quoted the prophet Joels language he declared the mission of the Comforter in its most catholic aspect, embracing Gentiles as well as Jews. "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." But St. Peter never thought of the full scope of his words. He meant, doubtless, that the promise of pardon, and acceptance, and citizenship in the heavenly kingdom was to those Jews that-were present in Jerusalem, and to their children, and to all of the Jews of the dispersion scattered afar off amid the Gentiles. Had Peter thought otherwise, had he perceived the wider meaning of his words, he would have had no hesitation about the reception of the Gentiles, and the baptism of Cornelius would not have demanded a fresh revelation.
We often, indeed, invest the Apostles and the writers of Holy Scripture with an intellectual grasp of a supernatural kind, which prevents us recognising that growth in Divine knowledge which found place in them, as it found place in the Divine Master Himself. We silently vote them infallible on every topic, because the Spirits presence was abundantly vouchsafed. The inspiration they enjoyed guided their language, and led them to use words which, while expressing their own sentiments, admitted a deeper meaning and embraced a wider scope than the speaker intended. It was just the same with the Apostles words as with their conduct in other respects. The presence and inspiration of the Spirit did not make them sinless, did not destroy human infirmities. It did not destroy St. Peters moral cowardice, or St. Pauls hot temper, or St. Barnabas family partiality and nepotism; and neither did that presence illumine at once St. Peters natural prejudices and intellectual backwardness, which led him long to restrain the mercies and lovingkindness of the Lord to His ancient people, though here on the day of Pentecost we find him using language which plainly included the Gentiles as well as the Jews within the covenant of grace. A farther question concerning the language of St. Peter here arises. Do not his words indicate that children were fit subjects for baptism? Do they not justify the practice of infant baptism? I honestly confess that, apart from the known practice of the Jews, St. Peters language would not necessarily mean so much. But then when we take the known practice of the Jews into consideration; when we remember that St. Peter was speaking to a congregation composed of Jews of the dispersion, accustomed, in their own missionary work among the heathen, to baptise children as well as adults, we must admit that, in the absence of any prohibition to the contrary, the effect of the words of St. Peter upon his hearers must have been this; they would have acted when Christians as they had already done as Jews, and baptised proselytes of every age and condition on their admission to the Christian fold. (See Lightfoot, "Hor. Heb.," St. Matthew.) {Mat_3:6}
V. Such was St. Peters sermon on the day of Pentecost. The results of it in the unity of doctrine and discipline and the community of goods will come before us in subsequent chapters. One thought stands out prominent as we survey this second chapter. Here in very deed we find an ample fulfilment of our Lords promise to St. Peter which has been so completely misused and misunderstood, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven"; a passage which has been made one of the scriptural foundations of the monstrous claims of the See of Rome to an absolute supremacy alike over the Christian Church and over the individual conscience. In this respect, however, Scripture is its own best interpreter. Just reflect how it is in this matter. Christ first of all defines, in the celebrated series of parables related in the thirteenth of St. Matthew, what the kingdom of heaven is. It is the kingdom He had come to reveal, the society He was establishing, the Church and dispensation of which He is the Head and Chief. To St. Peter He gave the keys, or power of opening the doors, of this kingdom; and this office St. Peter duly executed. He opened the door of the kingdom of heaven to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, and to the Gentiles by the conversion and baptism of Cornelius. St. Peter himself recognised on one occasion the special Providence which watched over him in this matter. He points out, in his speech to the brethren gathered at the first council held at Jerusalem, that "a good while ago God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel"; a passage which seems a reminiscence of the earlier promise of Christ, which Peter must have so. well remembered, and a humble recognition of the glorious fulfilment which that promise had received at the Divine hand. The promise was a purely personal one peculiar to St. Peter, as purely personal as the revelation made to him on the housetop at Joppa, and as such received a complete fulfilment in the Churchs infant days. But Romes vaulting ambition would not be content with the fulfilment which satisfied St. Peter himself, and on this text has been built up a series of claims which, culminating in the celebrated traffic in indulgences, precipitated the great revolution involved in the German Reformation.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv25, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 25–28. David speaketh. Psa. 16:8–11.
25–28. David speaketh. Psa. 16:8–11.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v37 Act_2:37. What shall we do?—As in Luk_3:10; Luk_3:12; Luk_3:14.…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_2:37. What shall we do?—As in Luk_3:10; Luk_3:12; Luk_3:14. The cry showed how deeply Peter’s words had penetrated.
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Act_2:38. Be baptised.—The rite known to the Jews as a means of admitting proselytes to the Jewish Church had been practised by John (Mat_3:6) and commanded by Christ (Mat_28:19). In or upon the name of Jesus Christ.—I.e., Not for the sake of the salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ (Hofmann), but upon the ground of the name of Jesus Christ or with confession of that which this name signified (Zöckler, Holtzmann, Hackett, and others). To the question, Why in the Acts (Act_10:48, Act_19:5) baptism is never, as in Matt. (Act_28:19), performed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost? various answers have been given.
1. Baptism in the name of any one of the Persons of the Trinity involves baptism in the names of the other two.
2. Luke, though employing the shorter, really meant the longer formula.
3. The longer formula was designed for Gentiles who had never known the Father, the shorter for converts from Jewish people or Jewish proselytes. The Didache, or Teaching of the Twelve (x), seems to favour the second explanation by using as synonymous the two expressions, “baptism into the name of the Lord” (ix. 5) and “baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (vii. 1). For, or in order to, εἰς, the remission of sins (compare Mat_26:28, and Luk_3:3), defines the negative aspect of the blessing which ensues upon a right reception of baptism. The gift of the Holy Ghost (compare Act_10:45, Act_11:17) represents the positive side of the same blessing.
Act_2:39. Your children.—“Little ones” rather than, though not exclusive of, posterity or descendants. All that are afar off.—Not remotely dwelling Jews only (Bengel, Meyer, Wendt, Holtzmann), but Gentiles as well (Calvin, Neander, Lange, Zöckler, Hackett), Shall call, sc. unto Him; so preserving the force of the preposition πρός.
Act_2:41. Were baptised.—How? By immersion? or by sprinkling or pouring? The Didache, vii. 2, 3 seems to suggest that both methods may have been employed. See further on this under “Hints and Suggestions.”
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_2:37-41
The First Converts; or, the Firstfruits of the Gospel Harvest
I. The anxious inquiry.—By whom it was preferred. The men and women who had listened to Peter’s sermon; who had manifestly kept awake when the Apostle preached, attended to his words, taken in and reflected on their significance, as well as applied them to their own circumstances and condition; in all which they offered an example to hearers of the Gospel in general.
2. To whom it was addressed. “To Peter and the rest of the Apostles.” From this conjunction of the eleven with Peter (see Act_2:14) it should perhaps be inferred that they also as well as Peter solicited a hearing from the crowd. Nor need it be doubted that, enjoying the same inspired assistance as Peter, they treated their themes in much the same way as he did his. In any case they were believed by the multitude to be able, as well as Peter, to direct those who asked from them guidance. It is good when preachers have the confidence of their hearers, in respect of both intelligence and willingness to place that intelligence at their service; it is better when hearers in their anxiety appeal for spiritual counsel to such preachers; it is best when they repair to Him who is the Lord both of hearers and preachers.
3. By what it was prompted.—A heartfelt conviction of guilt. Realising the terrible mistake they had been under both as to who Jesus of Nazareth had been and as to their behaviour in sending Him to a cross, they understood the heinous criminality of their lawless deed; and discerning clearly that if Christ were now exalted to the light hand of God they were in danger indeed, they became forthwith filled with alarm. Besides, by their exclamation they practically owned their sin, and openly confessed their belief that the Christ they had crucified was Lord of all. Once more furnishing a pattern to hearers of the Gospel, who should allow it when addressed to them to carry conviction of its truth to their understandings and of their guilt to their hearts and consciences.
4. For what it was directed. Guidance in their distressful perplexity: “What shall we do?” Pierced through with the arrows of conviction, rent with spiritual anguish under a sense of guilt, enlightened as to their wickedness, and alarmed for their safety, they felt that to remain indifferent or do nothing was impossible. They must escape from the peril in which they stood, know how to act in the crisis that had come upon them, find out where to turn and what to do in order to obtain remission of their guilt, peace for their consciences, and eternal life for their souls. A fourth time their behaviour was a splendid illustration of how convicted, anxious, and distressed Gospel hearers should act in time of soul concern.
II. The comforting reply.—
1. The direction. Two things were needful for all, without exception and without delay.
(1) Repentance. “Repent ye.” Without a change of mind, heart, and behaviour, salvation was impossible. Repentance for them meant an alteration in their way of thinking about Christ, who must no more be looked upon as a man, and far less as a malefactor, but regarded as Lord and Christ; in their way of feeling towards Christ, who must no more be treated with indifference and unbelief, far less with hate and persecution, but honoured with earnest faith and cordial love; in their way of acting before Christ, who must no more be pained by seeing them walking after their own ways, and far less in ways of sin, but must behold them following holiness and keeping His commandments.
(2) Baptism. “Be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ.” The repentance, faith, and obedience already demanded, if existing in the heart, must be outwardly expressed by submission to baptism, in which it was designed that all should be symbolised. Rightly viewed, this religious ordinance was intended for a material and visible representation not of the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but of the answer of a good conscience or the laying aside of the works of the flesh in repentance (1Pe_3:21), of the faith which looked for cleansing from guilt and sin to the sprinkling of a Saviour’s blood (Heb_12:24), and of that spirit of submission to Christ which acknowledged Him as Lord (Gal_3:27). That baptism was connected with repentance as necessary for the remission of sins did not signify that any saving efficacy resided in the water, or in the ceremony, but merely that without compliance with this ritual there could be no guarantee of that repentance which was required for salvation. Where, however, baptism was sincerely submitted to, it became a visible pledge to the repenting and believing recipient that the covenant of salvation, of which it was a seal, would be kept in his experience, and that the blessings of the covenant, of which it was a sign (washing from guilt or pardon, and washing from pollution or regeneration), would be bestowed upon him.
2. The promise. “Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Their cry indicated that already they had been visited by the gracious operations of that Spirit who Christ said (Joh_16:8) should convict the world of sin; what Peter’s statement imported was that the Holy Ghost should descend upon them as He had upon the Apostles themselves and their fellow-believers, and should remain with them as a permanent endowment (Joh_14:16), enlightening their minds (1Co_2:12), purifying their hearts (2Th_2:13), sanctifying their whole natures (1Co_6:11), witnessing with their spirits (Rom_8:16), and conferring upon them sundry gifts for the edification of themselves and the Church (1Co_12:7). The permanent inhabitation of the believer by the Holy Ghost is a recognised doctrine of the New Testament (Act_5:32, Act_10:44, Act_13:52, Act_15:8; Rom_5:5; 1Co_3:16; 2Co_1:22, etc.).
3. The encouragement. “The promise of the Holy Ghost,” which was virtually a promise of salvation, had been freely extended unto them, the Jews, domestic and foreign, then present in the city and listening to the Apostle, along with their children, descendants, or offspring (a warrant for infant baptism), and unto all that were afar off, not merely Jews of the dispersion, but Gentiles as well; an unambiguous hint that from the first the Gospel, as preached by Peter, contemplated the admission of the Gentiles into the Church, though Peter from the first did not understand the exact terms and conditions upon which their reception should take place. The only limitation to that universality which sounds in the Gospel offer arises from the appended clause, “as many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him,” which may signify either that the promise would realise itself only in the case of those whom God inwardly called to Himself by His grace, or that it was extended only to those who were invited by the Gospel. Both propositions are correct. All who hear the Gospel call are invited freely to lay hold of the promise; but the promise is fulfilled to them alone who by faith embrace it, and so prove themselves to have been inwardly drawn by the Father (Joh_6:44).
4. The appeal. Besides encouraging his hearers Peter endeavours to arouse them to instant action, by exhorting them to save themselves from the then existing crooked generation (compare Php_2:15), for which the Hebrew Scriptures threatened ultimate destruction (Psa_125:5); and this he tells them they could do only by repenting and being baptised. In no other way yet can men rescue themselves from the doom which overhangs this present evil world (1Co_11:32; Gal_1:4).
III. The happy result.—About three thousand souls (persons) responded to this appeal.
1. They received the Apostle’s word. With faith. A customary New Testament phrase for believing acceptance of the Gospel (Act_11:1, Act_17:7; 1Th_1:6; 1Th_2:13).
2. They submitted to baptism. Whether this rite was administered on the spot, or at a subsequent hour of the same day, or still later, to suit the convenience of the recipients, is not certain from the text (see “Critical Remarks”), though the second alternative is the more probable. (On the subjects of baptism, see “Hints on Act_2:39.”)
4. They were added to the Church. The word Church, though not expressed, is understood. The new converts were reckoned to the number of professed disciples, and professed disciples form the visible Church.
Learn.—
1. The genesis of true religion in the soul. Conviction of sin, repentance, faith (implied in baptism), pardon, the Holy Ghost.
2. The defectiveness of those (so-called) evangelical systems that have no place in their teaching for conviction of sin or repentance.
3. The certain test of religion’s reality in the soul of an individual—his having received the Holy Spirit.
4. The universality of the Gospel promise of salvation, not inconsistent with Divine Sovereignty in respect of the Gospel call.
5. The urgency of seeking after personal salvation, by separation from the sinful world.
6. The necessity of confessing Christ before men by submitting to baptism.
7. The duty of believers connecting themselves with the visible fellowship of the saints.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_2:37. Conviction of Sin.
I. By whom required?—All, seeing that all have sinned.
II. Wherein lies its seat?—In the heart, as distinguished from the head.
III. By what produced?—
1. The instrument—the word of God, either preached or read.
2. The agent—the Holy Ghost applying the word to the conscience.
IV. To what it leads?—A sense of danger and feeling of alarm, prompting the cry, “What shall we do?”
V. How removed?—By:
1. Repentance.
2. Remission of sin.
3. Reception of the Holy Ghost.
The Cry of awakened Souls, “What shall we do?” The cry of:
I. Acknowledged guilt.
II. Realised danger.
III. Conscious helplessness.
IV. Earnest desire.
V. Eager hope.
VI. Humble docility.
VII. Arising faith.
The Spirit and the New Sense of Sin.—Confucius is said to have once exclaimed, in an outburst of despondency, “It is all over! I have not yet seen one who could perceive his fault and inwardly accuse himself.” Confucius is not alone in that verdict upon human nature. The lament is suggestive. It implies the enormous difficulty of bringing an average man to admit his fault. It is all but impossible to argue the world into a frank and unreserved acknowledgment of its follies and misdemeanours. The most horrible offences which have ever blotted and befouled the history of mankind find ingenious apologists. At this very hour men will write to the newspapers to defend with sociological sophistries every vice that saps and smirches our national life. Where the Spirit of God does not work in the fulness of His power true moral discernment is wanting. You might as well make a colour-blind man judge at a flower-show, as accept from one who has not the Spirit of God a verdict upon questions of morals not already determined by statute law or public opinion. To convince of sin is a work of supreme difficulty worthy of the Spirit’s matchless light and wisdom and resource. So many forces militate against the work of the Spirit in convincing the world of sin, that the wonder is we should come to see any dawning humility, reproach, and self-accusation in human nature at all.
I. The instinctive pride of human nature is arrayed against this first task of the Comforter.—The man who, born to wealth, lands himself in an unhappy bankruptcy is rarely able to adapt himself to a life of straitened circumstance. He will think he has the right to ride behind horses, to be waited on, and to drink the best wines, to the end of his days, although he may never redeem his fortunes. His habits cling to him, and he goes upon the assumption that once a merchant prince, always a prince. A fallen king can rarely reconcile himself to the position of a mere subject. Poor plaything of chance though he is, he looks upon his hereditary rights as interminable, and claims from his followers on the tossing sea, or in the mountain cave or island prison, to which his conquerors have banished him, the deference he had claimed when the head of a brilliant court. And so with human nature. It seems to possess some faint hereditary consciousness of its own high birth. It has some pathetic and indefinable reminiscence of the position to which it was designated in the beginning. The reverence of children and the honour of neighbours are demanded as rights. The Bible, too, seems to give its sanction to this code of etiquette; for, in spite of all it has to say about the depravity of human nature, it enforces the universal honour of man as man. Can we be content to honour ourselves less than it is claimed others must honour us? We are built up in pride by that habit of expecting honour at the hands of others, the germ of which is perhaps hereditary, and we repel and resent that self-humiliation to which the Spirit must needs bring the best of us.
II. The work of the sin-convincing Spirit is further hindered by the fact that we judge ourselves in the light of an imaginary future, as well as by the ideals of an outfading past. We draw the material for our own portraiture from the flattering hopes we have been wont to cherish, rather than from the practical record we have left behind us. We had meant to be holy and noble and without reproach, and have not yet relinquished our great intentions, and it is from that standpoint we form the estimate of ourselves. It is not the spendthrift youth only, with a small income and extravagant conceptions of life, who makes audacious drafts upon the future. We are all prone to live in a fool’s paradise, in the ethical sense. We are not yet at the end of our career, and of course we are going some day to be faultless from every point of view. And the glamour of that dream is always before our eyes when we are called to the task of knowing ourselves. The future, as we intend to shape it, will more than outbalance the past.
III. Another difficulty encountered by the Spirit in this preparatory work is that we find ourselves with personalities whose natural perceptions are more active than their moral.—Two diseases work within us, our physical senses are in a condition of hyperæsthesia and morbid sleeplessness, and our spiritual senses are blunted by an ominous coma and a fast-developing in-duration. The perceptions of pleasure and pain are so much keener than the consciousness of right and wrong, that we never forget the wrongs done to us by others, and spend our lives in counting up the pitiful sum, whilst our heart grows stone-dead to the trespasses we have committed against both God and our fellows. We are occupied with an arithmetic that is entirely false, vicious, and misleading, and can never give us an equation of justice and of truth. Whilst our natural sensibilities are so keen, that we can give a most minute and detailed account of all the wrongs inflicted upon us by others, our moral sensibilities seem to be represented by a single attenuated nerve-thread only, which is so obtuse that it fails to register a tithe of the wrongs we do to others; and it is hard to bring us to that state of soul described by the expression “pricked in the heart.” And we come to look upon these solitary delinquencies as more than outweighed by the losses of which we are the victims through the multitudinous delinquencies of others. And by thinking of these possible offsets in judgment, we shut out the operation of the Spirit as He seeks to convince of sin.
IV. We are sometimes trained to self-justification by the exigencies of our daily life, and a tenacious habit is formed within us adverse to the sin-convincing work of the Spirit. The current conditions of society are such that certain cardinal moralities, and a reputation for them, are necessary to worldly success. We must vindicate our name at every turn if we are to live. The competition that prevails in all sections of the world, grave and gay alike, is in the last analysis the competition of reputations, and we must keep up our reputations, unless we are to go to the wall. It has become a second nature to us to overlook our own faults entirely, and to be ever dressing out our virtues for the eye of the world; and we carry the habit of self-vindication into God’s presence, and exercise it before His bar, perhaps at the very time we are joining in the General Confession of the Liturgy. When trees have been bent by the prevailing winds that have been beating upon them for half a century, it is not easy to make them lean in the other direction. A passing hurricane will not effect the reversion.
V. Our passionate self-interests league themselves against the work of the Spirit as He comes to convince us of sin.—We live in a world sadly lacking in charity and tenderness, and to plead guilty of a trespass in the common affairs of life would often be to invite punishment more or less severe. The world gives us the full benefit of all the confessions we pour into its ear, and we soon learn the art of keeping confessions to ourselves. In very few communities indeed is the admission of error a highway to advancement. Wherever Governments are cruel and public opinion is harsh and pitiless, you will find a proportionate reluctance to admit error and shortcoming. The most immaculate people in the world, according to their own estimate at least, are to be found in the lands where rule is despotic and public opinion pitiless. And some traces of this fact are present in our own midst. For the servant to confess error would be in many instances to challenge dismissal, especially if his position is one of trust and responsibility; for a master to confess error would be to invite strikes and to risk the break up of his authority; for a tradesman to confess grave error would in some cases lead to a discontinuance of the business that has been given him. I have heard some men plead that authority must be upheld when it is wrong, because to allow that it had made mistakes might pave the way to anarchic conditions of feeling. And this repugnance to the acknowledgment of error, ingrained into us through our worldly training and experience, influences us when the Spirit begins to deal with us and to convince us of our sin. Confession is almost inseparably associated with the idea of drastic punishment. What is the method of the Spirit’s logic? By what process does He introduce into the human mind and implant there these stern, unflattering convictions of sin? His work is creative, and we cannot penetrate its many secrets; and answers to these questions are necessarily fragmentary and inadequate.
1. The Holy Spirit for the fulfilment of His appointed work puts an environment of new ideals before the mind. He testifies of Christ, and in so doing makes us see how in His humanity all divine excellencies have come down into the midst of men and made themselves a new law to the conscience. Some little time ago I was passing through a country lane, and saw a flock of sheep feeding on the hillside. They seemed to be milk-white, justifying the scriptural metaphor, “He scattereth hoar-frost like wool,” and fit to be welcomed as pets into a drawing-room. In comparison with the green pastures in which they were feeding, their fleeces seemed bleached into spotlessness. Not long after, a snowstorm came, and I had occasion to pass by the same field. But the sheep did not seem to be the same creatures at all. The background had changed as if by magic, and they were in a new world, the conditions of which served to bring out their griminess. The collier, rising out of the pit into the sunshine after a night of toil, scarcely looked grimier than those spotless sheep of yesterday. So when the Spirit brings down from the presence of God on high into these human souls new ideals of truth and righteousness, love, purity, faithfulness, the soul sees itself against a new ethical background. The philanthropist puts himself by the side of churl and niggard, and says, How open-handed I am! A man poses before the background of ethical mediocrity current in his town, or city, or nation, and is quite content with his past record. And for the time his self-satisfaction seems to be warranted. But by-and-by the new background comes in. He awakes to the fact that he is in God’s presence, and sees himself standing by the side of the spotless Son of man in whom the Father has revealed Himself, and before the great white throne of all-searching judgment, and he is filled with shame and self-condemnation,
2. The Spirit enwraps the man to whom He comes with a new atmosphere of sympathy and graciousness, unlike that which exists in the world and provokes to ingenuous self-justification. He who comes under this ministry feels almost instinctively His right to search the heart and bring every delinquency before a divine tribunal. It is useless to attempt concealment, for the Spirit knows us more thoroughly than we know ourselves, and can constrain the most reluctant natures into a consciousness of their own evil. He acts upon us, not like the angry storm which leads men to bar their doors and close their shutters, but like the soft south wind, which opens every labyrinth of the heart and life to the light. It is no treachery or ill-will or unrelenting antagonism which is bringing right home to us the unwelcome facts of the past, but helping and healing beneficence.
3. But over and above these things, a new power of moral discernment needs to be aroused in those who are to be re-created by the ministry of the Spirit. The Pharisee met Jesus, and had no sense of guilt. The idea of spiritual sin seemed to be entirely foreign to the genius of his thought. He looked upon the surpassing excellence of this man of Nazareth as mere eccentricity, a freak of fanaticism, a spasm of madness. Men needed new senses, an enlargement of the conscience that would enable them to feel the guilt of unchastened desire, evil imagination, soulless worship. And where the Spirit comes, whilst He deadens to the illusions of the world and its vain shows, He makes men conscious of the paramount significance of the faintest things which touch their relation to the invisible. By awakening these new perceptions the Spirit brings into view the countless spiritual sins of the former days, and shuts men up for hope to the one common law of mercy. The fact that the sins of the spirit as well as the sins of the body are rebuked by this inward Teacher is indicated by that expansion of the words immediately added—indeed, sins of the spirit are the roots of all outward transgression—“of sin, because they believe not on Me.” In the view of the Spirit this is the core of all heinousness in either the ancient or the modern world, and the Spirit will demonstrate it to those with whom He deals.
4. The conviction of sin is the groundwork of all religious belief, and there can be no genuine consciousness of divine things which does not begin here. Remember in what an awful state the man is who lacks this new sense of sin. If the natural senses were blotted out, a man would walk into some death-trap or other in less than twenty-four hours. And when a man lacks these spiritual senses, is the peril less tragic, think you? The highest thing that the love of God or man can seek for you is that you may have this sense of sin. Has it been born within you? Do you possess this sign of a dawning spiritual life?—T. G. Selby.
Act_2:38. The Gift of the Holy Ghost.
I. Supernatural as to its origin.
II. Mysterious as to its enjoyment.
III. Free as to its bestowment.
IV. Conditioned as to its reception.
V. Permanent as to its duration.
VI. Saving as to its effect.
Act_2:36-38. The Cross, the Crucifiers, and the Crucified.
I. The crucified One.—Let us note concerning this.
1. Who He was. “That same Jesus”; yes, Jesus of Nazareth.
2. What was done to Him. He was betrayed, tried, condemned, crucified, slain.
3. By whom was this done? By “His own”; by “Israel,” the house of Israel.
4. What God has made Him. “Both Lord and Christ.” The stone which the builders rejected has been made the head of the corner.
II. The crucifiers.—They were, as we have seen, “the house of Israel.” They had deliberately united to crucify.—
1. An innocent man.
2. A good man.
3. A prophet.
4. The Lord of Glory.
5. Their own Messiah. They were thus not merely murderers, but no ordinary ones; criminals in the highest and darkest sense.
III. The connection between the crucified and the crucifiers for evil and for good.
1. For evil. For condemnation. It was this that they felt so awfully when the Apostle had stated the simple facts.
(1) They were pricked in their hearts.
(2) They cried out, What shall we do? A full sense of their awful criminality flashed through them.
2. For good. This connection for evil might be disannulled, and a new one formed.—H. Bonar, D.D.
Act_2:39. The Promise of the Gospel.
I. As to its giver, divine.
II. As to its contents, saving.
III. As to its terms, free.
IV. As to its recipients, universal.
V. As to its continuance, irrevocable.
To you and to your Children; or, the Church Membership of Children.
I. The import of this statement.—Not that all children indiscriminately and promiscuously should be regarded as within the pale of the Church visible, but only those of such parents or parent as accepted and relied upon the promise.
II. The ground of this statement.—That children were considered as within the pale of the Old Testament Church, and that under the New the promise of salvation (remission of sins and reception of the Holy Ghost), and therefore of Church membership, is distinctly offered to men and women not by themselves, but along with their offspring.
III. The consequence of this statement.—
1. The salvation of children dying in infancy. This seems, in the case at least of the children of believing parents, involved in their relation to the promise. The promise belongs to them in virtue of their connection with believing parents, and is given to them the moment they accept it by an act of personal repentance and faith. Hence, in the case of such as die before this repentance and faith can be exercised, it seems reasonable to conclude that they are saved. Nor is it an unnatural supposition with regard to infants generally who die before attaining to years of responsibility that they also, for Christ’s sake, share in the blessing of the promise.
2. The reasonableness of infant baptism. If to them belongs the promise of salvation, why should they not receive its sign and seal? If it be answered that faith must precede baptism, the answer is that faith must also precede salvation. If, then, a child cannot be baptised without faith, the conclusion is that neither can he be saved without faith. In other words, a child dying in infancy must be lost. We prefer to believe Christ: “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Act_2:37-40. Words for Anxious Inquirers.
I. Their duty pointed out.—
1. Repent.
2. Believe.
3. Be baptised.
II. Their salvation assured.—
1. The Holy Ghost is for them who perform these duties.
2. As a free gift.
3. In undoubted certainty.
III. Their warrant set forth.—
1. The promise of salvation is for them. 2 They are called to believe the promise and accept the gift.
Act_2:41. The Miraculous Draught of Souls.
I. The deep sea.—The listening multitude.
II. The gospel net.—The sermon of Peter.
III. The great catch.—Three thousand converts in one day.
Act_2:38-41. Scala Salutis; or, the Ladder of Salvation.
I. Repentance cherished.
II. Faith expressed.
III. Sin forgiven.
IV. The Holy Ghost received.
V. Baptism submitted to.
VI. The Church entered.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv25, 27, 29, 30, 33, 36, 37, 38 25. “I foresaw the Lord always before me, because…
25. “I foresaw the Lord always before me, because he is my right hand that I may not be shaken.” These words are applied to Christ; like much of David’s testimony this is only applicable to David’s greatest Son. We must bear in mind that the humanity of Christ is our only exemplar. The great importance of sanctification consists in the fact that it saves us from human leadership, which is always uncertain, fraught with peril, conducive to the damnation of millions. Truly sanctified people have no Leader but Jesus and no Guide but the Word, Spirit and Providence. The carnal clergy in all ages have fought sanctification with uncompromising virulence, from the simple fact that it takes the people out of their hands and turns them over to God, thus interrupting their cherished ecclesiastical policy of human leadership. In the fact that the man Jesus is our great and only Exemplar, we are assured in this verse that it is our privilege to enjoy spiritual apprehension of His constant presence. As the advocate in criminal court stood on the right hand of the accused while he defended and delivered him from the hands of his enemies, so it is our privilege to enjoy a constant spiritual apprehension of the inspiring and consolatory presence of the great Deliverer.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv32, 36, 37 Act 2:32 - Act 2:47.
Acts
PETER’S FIRST SERMON
Read full note →
Act 2:32 - Act 2:47.
This passage may best be dealt with as divided into three parts: the sharp spear-thrust of Peter’s closing words {Act 2:32 - Act 2:36}, the wounded and healed hearers {Act 2:37 - Act 2:41}, and the fair morning dawn of the Church {Act 2:42 - Act 2:47}.
I. Peter’s address begins with pointing out the fulfilment of prophecy in the gift of the Spirit {Act 2:14 - Act 2:21}.
It then declares the Resurrection of Jesus as foretold by prophecy, and witnessed to by the whole body of believers {Act 2:22 - Act 2:32}, and it ends by bringing together these two facts, the gift of the Spirit and the Resurrection and Ascension, as effect and cause, and as establishing beyond all doubt that Jesus is the Christ of prophecy, and the Lord on whom Joel had declared that whoever called should be saved. We now begin with the last verse of the second part of the address.
Observe the significant alternation of the names of ‘Christ’ and ‘Jesus’ in Act 2:31 - Act 2:32. The former verse establishes that prophecy had foretold the Resurrection of the Messiah, whoever he might be; the latter asserts that ‘this Jesus’ has fulfilled the prophetic conditions. That is not a thing to be argued about, but to be attested by competent witnesses. It was presented to the multitude on Pentecost, as it is to us, as a plain matter of fact, on which the whole fabric of Christianity is built, and which itself securely rests on the concordant testimony of those who knew Him alive, saw Him dead, and were familiar with Him risen.
There is a noble ring of certitude in Peter’s affirmation, and of confidence that the testimony producible was overwhelming. Unless Jesus had risen, there would neither have been a Pentecost nor a Church to receive the gift. The simple fact which Peter alleged in that first sermon, ‘whereof we all are witnesses,’ is still too strong for the deniers of the Resurrection, as their many devices to get over it prove.
But, a listener might ask, what has this witness of yours to do with Joel’s prophecy, or with this speaking with tongues? The answer follows in the last part of the sermon. The risen Jesus has ascended up; that is inseparable from the fact of resurrection, and is part of our testimony. He is ‘exalted by,’ or, perhaps, at, ‘the right hand of God.’ And that exaltation is to us the token that there He has received from the Father the Spirit, whom He promised to send when He left us. Therefore it is He-’this Jesus’-who has ‘poured forth this,’-this new strange gift, the tokens of which you see flaming on each head, and hear bursting in praise from every tongue.
What triumphant emphasis is in that ‘He’! Peter quotes Joel’s word ‘pour forth.’ The prophet had said, as the mouthpiece of God, ‘I will pour forth’; Peter unhesitatingly transfers the word to Jesus. We must not assume in him at this stage a fully-developed consciousness of our Lord’s divine nature, but neither must we blink the tremendous assumption which he feels warranted in making, that the exaltation of Jesus to the right hand of God meant His exercising the power which belonged to God Himself.
In Act 2:34, he stays for a moment to establish by prophecy that the Ascension, of which he had for the first time spoken in Act 2:33, is part of the prophetic characteristics of the Messiah. His demonstration runs parallel with his preceding one as to the Resurrection. He quotes Psa 110:1 - Psa 110:7, which he had learned to do from his Master, and just as he had argued about the prediction of Resurrection, that the dead Psalmist’s words could not apply to himself, and must therefore apply to the Messiah; so he concludes that it was not ‘David’ who was called by Jehovah to sit as ‘Lord’ on His right hand. If not David, it could only be the Messiah who was thus invested with Lordship, and exalted as participator of the throne of the Most High.
Then comes the final thrust of the spear, for which all the discourse has been preparing. The Apostle rises to the full height of his great commission, and sets the trumpet to his mouth, summoning ‘all the house of Israel,’ priests, rulers, and all the people, to acknowledge his Master. He proclaims his supreme dignity and Messiahship. He is the ‘Lord’ of whom the Psalmist sang, and the prophet declared that whoever called on His name should be saved; and He is the Christ for whom Israel looked.
Last of all, he sets in sharp contrast what God had done with Jesus, and what Israel had done, and the barb of his arrow lies in the last words, ‘whom ye crucified.’ And this bold champion of Jesus, this undaunted arraigner of a nation’s crimes, was the man who, a few weeks before, had quailed before a maid-servant’s saucy tongue! What made the change? Will anything but the Resurrection and Pentecost account for the psychological transformation effected in him and the other Apostles?
II. No wonder that ‘they were pricked in their heart’!
Such a thrust must have gone deep, even where the armour of prejudice was thick. The scene they had witnessed, and the fiery words of explanation, taken together, produced incipient conviction, and the conviction produced alarm. How surely does the first glimpse of Jesus as Christ and Lord set conscience to work! The question, ‘What shall we do?’ is the beginning of conversion. The acknowledgment of Jesus which does not lead to it is shallow and worthless. The most orthodox accepter, so far as intellect goes, of the gospel, who has not been driven by it to ask his own duty in regard to it, and what he is to do to receive its benefits, and to escape from his sins, has not accepted it at all.
Peter’s answer lays down two conditions: repentance and baptism. The former is often taken in too narrow a sense as meaning sorrow for sin, whereas it means a change of disposition or mind, which will be accompanied, no doubt, with ‘godly sorrow,’ but is in itself deeper than sorrow, and is the turning away of heart and will from past love and practice of evil. The second, baptism, is ‘in the name of Jesus Christ,’ or more accurately, ‘upon the name,’-that is, on the ground of the revealed character of Jesus. That necessarily implies faith in that Name; for, without such faith, the baptism would not be on the ground of the Name. The two things are regarded as inseparable, being the inside and the outside of the Christian discipleship. Repentance, faith, baptism, these three, are called for by Peter.
But ‘remission of sins’ is not attached to the immediately preceding clause, so as that baptism is said to secure remission, but to the whole of what goes before in the sentence. Obedience to the requirements would bring the same gift to the obedient as the disciples had received; for it would make them disciples also. But, while repentance and baptism which presupposed faith were the normal, precedent conditions of the Spirit’s bestowal, the case of Cornelius, where the Spirit was given before baptism, forbids the attempt to link the rite and the divine gift more closely together.
The Apostle was eager to share the gift. The more we have of the Spirit, the more shall we desire that others may have Him, and the more sure shall we be that He is meant for all. So Peter went on to base his assurance, that his hearers might all possess the Spirit, on the universal destination of the promise. Joel had said, ‘on all flesh’; Peter declares that word to point downwards through all generations, and outwards to all nations. How swiftly had he grown in grasp of the sweep of Christ’s work! How far beneath that moment of illumination some of his subsequent actions fell!
We have only a summary of his exhortations, the gist of which was earnest warning to separate from the fate of the nation by separating in will and mind from its sins. Swift conviction followed the Spiri-given words, as it ever will do when the speaker is filled with the Holy Spirit, and has therefore a tongue of fire. Three thousand new disciples were made that day, and though there must have been many superficial adherents, and none with much knowledge, it is perhaps not fanciful to see in Luke’s speaking of them as ‘souls’ a hint that, in general, the acceptance of Jesus as Messiah was deep and real. Not only were three thousand ‘names’ added to the hundred and twenty, but three thousand souls.
III. The fair picture of the morning brightness, so soon overclouded, so long lost, follows.
First, the narrative tells how the raw converts were incorporated in the community, and assimilated to its character. They, too, ‘continued steadfastly’ {Act 1:14}. Note the four points enumerated: ‘teaching,’ which would be principally instruction in the life of Jesus and His Messianic dignity, as proved by prophecy; ‘fellowship,’ which implies community of disposition and oneness of heart manifested in outward association; ‘breaking of bread,’-that is, the observance of the Lord’s Supper; and ‘the prayers,’ which were the very life-breath of the infant Church {Act 1:14}. Thus oneness in faith and in love, participation in the memorial feast and in devotional acts bound the new converts to the original believers, and trained them towards maturity. These are still the methods by which a sudden influx of converts is best dealt with, and babes in Christ nurtured to full growth. Alas! that so often churches do not know what to do with novices when they come in numbers.
A wider view of the state of the community as a whole closes the chapter. It is the first of several landing-places, as it were, on which Luke pauses to sum up an epoch. A reverent awe laid hold of the popular mind, which was increased by the miraculous powers of the Apostles. The Church will produce that impression on the world in proportion as it is manifestly filled with the Spirit. Do we? The s-called community of goods was not imposed by commandment, as is plain from Peter’s recognition of Ananias’ right to do as he chose with his property. The facts that Mark’s mother, Mary, had a house of her own, and that Barnabas, her relative, is specially signalised as having sold his property, prove that it was not universal. It was an irrepressible outcrop of the brotherly feeling that filled all hearts. Christ has not come to lay down laws, but to give impulses. Compelled communism is not the repetition of that oneness of sympathy which effloresced in the bright flower of this common possession of individual goods. But neither is the closed purse, closed because the heart is shut, which puts to shame so much profession of brotherhood, justified because the liberality of the primitive disciples was not by constraint nor of obligation, but willing and spontaneous.
Act 2:46 - Act 2:47 add an outline of the beautiful daily life of the community, which was, like their liberality, the outcome of the feeling of brotherhood, intensified by the sense of the gulf between them and the crooked generation from which they had separated themselves. Luke shows it on two sides. Though they had separated from the nation, they clung to the Temple services, as they continued to do till the end. They had not come to clear consciousness of all that was involved in their discipleship, It was not God’s will that the new spirit should violently break with the old letter. Convulsions are not His way, except as second-best. The disciples had to stay within the fold of Israel, if they were to influence Israel. The time of outward parting between the Temple and the Church was far ahead yet.
But the truest life of the infant Church was not nourished in the Temple, but in the privacy of their homes. They were one family, and lived as such. Their ‘breaking bread at home’ includes both their ordinary meals and the Lord’s Supper; for in these first days every meal, at least the evening meal of every day, was hallowed by having the Supper as a part of it. Each meal was thus a religious act, a token of brotherhood, and accompanied with praise. Surely then ‘men did eat angels’ food,’ and on platter and cup was written ‘Holiness to the Lord.’ The ideal of human fellowship was realised, though but for a moment, and on a small scale. It was inevitable that divergences should arise, but it was not inevitable that the Church should depart so far from the brief brightness of its dawn. Still the sweet concordant brotherhood of these morning hours witnesses what Christian love can do, and prophesies what shall yet be and shall not pass.
No wonder that such a Church won favour with all the people! We hear nothing of its evangelising activity, but its life was such that, without recorded speech, multitudes were drawn into so sweet a fellowship. If we were like the Pentecostal Christians, we should attract wearied souls out of the world’s Babel into the calm home where love and brotherhood reigned, and God would ‘add’ to us ‘day by day those that were being saved.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv25–38 25-28. There are two points in this announcement which…
25-28. There are two points in this announcement which required proof, and to the presentation of this Peter immediately proceeds. Having stated that Jesus was delivered according to the determined purpose of God, he now quotes that purpose as expressed by David in the 16th Psalm . (25) " For David says concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face; for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. (26) Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh shall rest in hope; (27) because thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. (28) Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou wilt make me full of joy with thy countenance. " Only so much of this quotation as refers to the resurrection suits the special purpose of the speaker, the preceding portion serving only to connectedly introduce it.
The words, "Thou shalt make known to me the ways of life," constitute the affirmative assertion of a restoration to life, which had been negatively expressed, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption" The words "Thou wilt make me full of joy with thy countenance," no doubt refer to that joy set before Jesus, for which "he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
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It is commonly agreed among interpreters, that in the sentence, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades, neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption," there is no distinction intended between the condition of the soul and that of the body; but that the whole is merely equivalent to the statement, Thou wilt not leave me among the dead. I am constrained, however, to adopt the opinion advanced, but not defended, by Olshausen, that the apostle does intend to fix our attention upon the body and soul of Jesus separately. The most obvious reason for this opinion is the fact that his body and soul are spoken of separately, and with separate reference to their respective places of abode during the period of death. The soul can not see corruption, neither can the body go into hades; but when men die, ordinarily, their bodies see corruption, and their souls enter, not the grave, but hades. The words in question declare, in reference to both the body and soul of Jesus, that which must have occurred in his resurrection, that the one was not left in hades, neither did the other see corruption. The apostle, in commenting upon them, makes the distinction still more marked, by saying, ( verse 31 , below), "He spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul should not be left in hades, nor his flesh see corruption." Why do both the prophet and the apostle so carefully make the distinction, unless they wish to fix attention upon it?
The term hades designates the place of disembodied spirits. It is, as its etymology indicates, ( a, privative; idein, to see ) the unseen. The Greeks were good at giving names to things. When they watched a friend sinking into the arms of death, they could see, by the motion of the frame and the light of the eye, the continued presence of the soul, until at last, the muscles were all motionless, and the eye fixed and leaden. They could still see the body, and after it had been deposited in the grave they could revisit it and see it again. But where is the soul? You see it no longer. There are no signs of its presence. It is gone; and its invisible abode they call hades, the unseen. That the soul of Jesus entered hades is undeniable. That it returned again to the body at the resurrection is asserted by Peter; and it is this return which was predicted by the prophet, and which caused the exultation both of himself and the apostle.
The resurrection of Jesus is not appreciated by the religious world now, as it was by the apostles. As respects the return of his soul from hades, Protestant writers have fled so far from the justly-abhorred purgatory of the Catholic, and the gloomy soul-sleeping of the Materialist, that they have passed beyond the Scripture doctrine, and either ignore altogether the existence of an intermediate state, or deny that the souls of the righteous are short of ultimate happiness during this period. On the other hand, they have so great a tendency to absolute spiritualism in their conceptions of the future state, that they fail to appreciate the necessity for the resurrection of the body of Jesus, or to exult, as the apostles did, in anticipation of the resurrection of their own bodies. As long as men entertain the idea that their spirits enter into final bliss and glory immediately after death, they can never be made to regard the resurrection of the body as a matter of importance. This idea has been produced a general skepticism among the masses, in reference to a resurrection of the body; for men are very apt to doubt the certainty of future events for which they see no necessity. As respects the resurrection of the body of Jesus, the most popular conception of its necessity is no doubt this, that it was merely to comply with the predictions of the prophets and of Jesus himself. It would be far more rational to suppose that it was made a subject of prophesy, because there was some grand necessity that it should occur.
It would occupy too much space, in a work of this kind, to fully develop this subject, we must, therefore, content ourselves with only a few observations, the complete vindication of the correctness of which we must forego.
When the eternal Word became flesh, he assumed all the limitations and dependencies which belong to men; "for it behooved him to be made in all things like his brethren." One of these limitations was the inability to work without a body; hence, to him, as well as to his brethren, there was a night coming in which he could not work. He says, "I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; the night is coming when no man can work." This night can not be the period after the resurrection, for then he did work. It must, then, be the period of death, while his soul was absent from his body. During this period, he himself asserts, he could do no work, and certainly neither history nor prophesy refer to any work which he then did. It was the Jewish Sabbath among the living, and he observed it with absolute stillness in hades. If he had appeared to his disciples, as angels appear to men, convincing them that he was still alive, and could then have gone to heaven in his mere spiritual nature, who could say there was any necessity for a resurrection of that body in which all his sufferings were endured, and through which all temptations had reached him? But he could not be. Hades was to him a night of inactivity, as it is to all his disciples, though to neither is it a state of unconsciousness. If it had continued forever, then the further work of redemption, which could only be effected by a mediator in heaven, a Christ on the throne, sending down the Holy Spirit, directing the labors of men and angels, and finally raising the dead to judgment, would have remained undone forever. It was this thought which caused the exultation of the apostles, in view of the recovery of his soul from the inactivity of hades, and its reunion with the uncorrupted and now incorruptible body. "He was delivered for our offenses," but "was raised again for our justification." His death was the atonement, enabling God to be just in justifying those who believe on Jesus; but his resurrection enabled him to enter heaven with his own blood, securing eternal redemption for us. The resurrection was, therefore, an imperious necessity in his case, and it will be in ours; for not till he comes again will we enter the mansions he is preparing for us, and receive the crown of righteousness which he will give to all them, who love his appearing.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv27, 31, 38 Hades. (See Scofield "Luk 16:23").
hell
Hades. (See Scofield "Luk 16:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv25, 29, 33, 37 The proof from David:
The proof from David:
v. 25. For David speaketh concerning Him, I foresaw the Lord always before My face, for He is on My right hand, that I should not be moved;
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v. 26. therefore did My heart rejoice, and My tongue was glad; moreover, also My flesh shall rest in hope;
v. 27. because Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.
v. 28. Thou hast made known to Me the ways of life; Thou shalt make Me full of joy with Thy countenance.
Peter had stated to the Jews that Jesus had been delivered according to the foreknowledge of God and that God had raised Him up from the dead. Since these two statements required proof, the apostle proceeds to give it from Scriptures. He quotes Psa 16:8-11. There David says certain facts of the Lord, and the Messiah speaks through him. The Messiah declares that He beholds the Lord, Jehovah, before His face always; He is in the bosom of the Father from everlasting to everlasting. God, His heavenly Father, is at His right hand, as His Defense and Helper, so that He could not become permanently dejected. For that reason the Messiah’s heart is full of gladness and His tongue is full of exultation, His soul is full of joyful confidence. For His flesh, His living, animate body, may dwell in cheerful hope; the Messiah’s entire life could be spent in a confident and calm contemplation of the end which was awaiting Him. For the Lord, His heavenly Father, would not give up, not desert, His soul in the kingdom of death, would not permit Him to become the permanent prey of death, neither would He give His Holy One to see corruption. He knows and is convinced that His soul will not be given up and abandoned in the abode of the dead and destruction, that His body will not rot in the grave according to the common experience of mankind. In distinction from this the Lord has made known to the Messiah the ways of life; He has filled Him with gladness as being in His presence without interruption. For the Messiah no death would, even for a moment, sever the union between Him and His God and Lord. Note: The words of the Psalm are a beautiful and clear exposition of the Messiah concerning His death and the glorification which would be His through His death.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv25, 27, 29, 32, 34, 37 General Information:
General Information:
Here Peter quotes a passage that David wrote in a Psalm which relates to Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.
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General Information:
Since Peter says that David said these words about Jesus, the words "I" and "my" refer to Jesus and the words "Lord" and "he" refer to God.
before my face
"in front of me." AT: "in my presence" or "with me" (See: Synecdoche and Idiom)
beside my right hand
To be at someone's "right hand" often means to be in a position to help and sustain. AT: "right beside me" or "with me to help me" (See: Synecdoche and Idiom)
I should not be moved
Here the word "moved" means to be troubled. This can be stated in active form. AT: "people will not be able to cause me trouble" or "nothing will trouble me" (See: Active or Passive)
my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced
People consider the "heart" the center of emotions and the "tongue" voices those emotions. AT: "I was glad and rejoiced" (See: Synecdoche)
my flesh will live in certain hope
Possible meanings of the word "flesh" are 1) he is a mortal who will die. AT: "Even though I am only mortal, I will have confidence in God" or 2) it is synecdoche for his entire person. AT: "I will live with confidence in God" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
David
lord
hand
heart
tongue
joy
flesh
confidence
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv27, 32, 34, 37 2:27 among the dead: See study note on Matt…
2:27 among the dead: See study note on Matt 11:23.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.