You Killed the Son of God

                     

A world-famed musician, standing before a great audience, took up a violin, and played upon it so remarkably that his listeners sat in rapt attention. One string of the violin broke. He played on as though nothing had happened. The second string broke and though the audience was amazed still he continued to play as before. Then the third string broke, leaving but one, and while the people held their breath, he played on beautifully.

At last the fourth string broke and the great musician raised his violin and bringing it down with all his might dashed it to pieces. The people thought that in anger he had ruined a very valuable instrument. He then told them that he had purchased that violin for three dollars; that he had used it to show them that it was not so much the instrument as the master hand that played it which determined the quality of music.

In the very first sermon preached by the Church, Apostle Peter quoted Joel 2:28-32.  He said “I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved”(Acts 2:19-21).

Joel's prophecy began to be fulfilled at Pentecost with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the 120 disciples of Jesus. At the end of the age there will be the strange darkening of the sun and moon. This was not fulfilled in Joel’s day and it was not fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. It will be literally fulfilled in the days just preceding the second coming of Christ to the earth.

Jesus said “immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light… then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels … and they will gather his elect from … one end of the heavens to the other (Matt.24:29-31).

The Bible writers did not shrink from writing using fearful things. True preaching always involves giving both the positive and the negative sides of the plan of God. We cannot preach the God of love if we do not also preach the God who judges sin and punishes sinners. If we do not preach the truth of God’s judgment, we present a warped gospel to the world that cannot save the lost.

Peter gives his audience the beginning and the ending of the present age, in which we live. It began on Pentecost; it will end after the great tribulation. Then the Day of Judgment for all the nations will come (Acts 10:42; 17:31). Until then the spirit will be poured out on all flesh; the gospel will spread and "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Having said that Peter drops a bomb upon these people; He says “men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death”.

Peter announces that the Lord whose name men must call for salvation is none other than Jesus of Nazareth who they crucified 50 days earlier in that same city. That striking announcement fell upon the ears of these people with fantastic power. Peter proceeds to set before them a three-fold argument which began with the humanity of Jesus and ended with a clear proclamation of his deity.

The argument lays the foundation of the Christian faith.  He gives the great events in history upon which the Christian faith rests: the life, death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. These are normal historical events but if these events had not occurred, Christianity would be a hoax. It is upon the historicity of these events that the Christian faith rests.

Peter says “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22). Peter is preaching to people who knew the Old Testament and among whom Jesus of Nazareth had physically walked; he lived among them and they had witnessed the phenomenal events.

They knew that His coming had been heralded by angels. They knew that during his baptism God had spoken from heaven declaring that Jesus was His beloved Son. They had been there during the Passover week, when the city was so stirred with the arrest and trial and the death of Jesus. They would have contradicted the apostle if any of these events were legend. But, they did not say anything because they had seen it all.

Jesus was authenticated by God and the method of authentication was by "mighty works and wonders and signs". The amazing miracles of changing water to wine, and stilling the winds and the waves, multiplying the loaves and fishes, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead were signs from God. Peter says that it was God who did them through Jesus.

The second event Peter focuses on is the death of Jesus. Peter says" this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." The death of Jesus fulfilled the determined program of God. The cross was no accident in the life of Jesus; it was programmed by God the Father from the beginning of time.

The death of Jesus was an essential event; the only way God could deal with the problem of human evil. Peter says it was accomplished by the Jews. He brought them face to face with the glaring fact that they had crucified the Lord of Glory and they did it through the hands of the lawless Romans. But this fact did not minimize their guilt or relieve them of responsibility for their crime.

To attest to the uniqueness of Jesus’ death, Matthew recorded four phenomenal events that took place when Jesus died. Jesus hung on the cross between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm (Mark 15:25,34).The first three hours were in normal daylight, so that all could see that it was in fact Jesus on the cross. Then from noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over the whole land” (Matt. 27:45).

The curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt. 27:51). The veil separated the holy of holies from the other parts of the temple, a vivid demonstration of the separation between God and man. The veil was torn from top to bottom; the way to God had been opened for all people through Christ. In Ephesians 2:14, Paul says that Christ has torn down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile.

The earth quaked and the rocks were split.  Nature itself was shaken by the death of the Son of God. The timing and accompanying events suggest this was a supernatural event. Earthquakes in the Bible often accompanied a unique act of God. The earthquake reflected “the immensity of the ‘earth-shaking’ revolution that had just taken place with the splitting of the curtain.

The graves were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised and they went into the holy city and appeared to many (Matt. 27:51).The radiating power of new life was so great that it resuscitated some of the righteous dead. This is one of the strangest passages in the Bible and Matthew does not tell us much. However these resuscitated saints died once again, just like Lazarus did.

The third event was the resurrection: "But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." Here is revealed the power of God among men, a power which man cannot duplicate. Resurrection power is the ability to bring life out of death, to correct a situation which is hopeless and to change a person who is irremediable.

Peter says, " we disciples are the witnesses of these things." And the remarkable thing is that not one voice is lifted in protest in this whole crowd of people. One of the greatest proofs of the resurrection of Jesus is that Peter could stand up in the city where these events had taken place and tell these people that Jesus had risen from the dead and not one voice challenges him!

They had not seen him, he appeared only to his disciples, but they had known that the body was not there; the tomb was empty. They knew that the authorities could not produce the body of Jesus, though they would have given a king's ransom to have done so. They had heard all the rumors that spread through the city that Jesus was alive and that he was appearing to his own disciples from time to time.

Not one voice challenges what the apostle says. Instead they stand there in mute and stricken silence as the apostle drives the message home with powerful blows of the Spirit, convicting them of the truth of his claim. Peter cites Psalm 16:8-11 to show an Old Testament prediction of the resurrection. In that psalm, David declares that God will not abandon his soul to Hades nor allow His holy one to undergo decay.

But, Peter argues, David both died and was buried, and his tomb was right there in Jerusalem. In other words, David’s body did undergo decay. Therefore, David as a prophet looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ. Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah when he confidently states, “this Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses” (2:32). Thus Jesus’ miracles, death and resurrection all authenticate Him as both Lord and Christ.