The King Was Dead; Long Live the King!
 |
| "St. Peter Preaching at Pentecost" by Benjamin West |
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ!
If you read the bulletin carefully, you may
have noted the title of this sermon: The King Was Dead; Long Live the King! It
is a slight variation on the traditional proclamation made following the accession
of a new monarch to the throne: “The king is dead; long live the king!” This
seemingly contradictory phrase is used to simultaneously announce the death of
the previous monarch and assure the public of continuity and governmental
stability by saluting the new monarch who has immediately assumed the throne at
the moment of the predecessor’s death.
In this case, I’m using the past tense on the
first phrase to emphasize an important point that Peter makes in his Pentecost
sermon: “This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God
raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him
to be held by it” (Acts 2:23-24).
The King was dead. God raised Him up. Long
live the risen King!
The sermon itself is both short and
extraordinary. It proclaims Jesus Christ to people who do not know Him. Oh, they
know about Him, but they don’t really know Him. They don’t know Jesus as Lord
and Savior.
Peter, standing with the eleven, lifts up his
voice and addresses the crowd: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of
Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs
that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus,
delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you
crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
Peter reminds his fellow Jews of something
they already know: God had acted through Jesus and His miraculous signs. Those
works, says Peter, were God’s certification that Jesus came from God and did
God’s work. Those works bore witness that Jesus’ message was God’s message.
They attested to the fact that Jesus was the promised Messiah, Israel’s hope, the
King of the Jews.
“But you put Jesus to death,” Peter charges. “You
handed Him over to the Romans to be crucified, a horrible, cursed death,
reserved only for the worst of criminals.” Yet none of this could have happened
if it had not been “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.”
The men who crucified Jesus were responsible for what they did. But their sinful
actions served God’s purpose to offer His Son for the sins of the world, an
essential part of His plan of salvation.
Peter’s words are a hard saying. God’s people
had rejected and killed God’s Anointed One. But “God raised Him up, loosing the
pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. For David
says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right
hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue
rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For You will not abandon my soul to
Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths
of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’” Filled with
joy and hope, David is confident that as one of God’s “holy ones,” the Lord
will raise him up on the Last Day and he will enjoy eternal life with His Lord.
But this prophecy will not have its final fulfillment
in David. “David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David”
(1 Kings 2:10). If his tomb had been opened, it would have shown that his body
had decayed. But before he died, God had promised David: “When your days are
fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring
after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish His kingdom. He
shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom
forever” (2 Samuel 7:12–13). Every Jew knew that that “offspring” is the
promised Messiah, and Peter invites them to conclude that the “Holy One” whose
body would not see decay is also the Messiah.
To make sure they do not miss the point, Peter
goes on more specifically: “[David] foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of
the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh see
corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses” (Acts
2:31-32).
David had prophetic knowledge that His holy
descendant would rise from death. Peter and his fellow apostles had firsthand
knowledge, historical knowledge. They had seen the risen Christ, spoken with
Him, eaten with Him. More than five hundred people had seen the resurrected
Lord at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6). “God has raised this Jesus to life.” The
King was dead; long live the King!
“God has raised this Jesus to life” was the
heart of the message the apostles preached in all of the world and the one they
recorded in the New Testament. It is the foundation of our faith. Jesus’ death
was the sacrifice for our sins, and God raised Him to life to declare that the
sacrifice was accepted. He died to destroy the devil, and God raised Him to
life to declare that hell has been defeated.
The King was dead; long live the King!
Jesus’ ministry and reign continues and will
go on forever. What the crowd is seeing at that moment is a manifestation of this.
“Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the
Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you
yourselves are seeing and hearing.”
The people put Jesus to death, but God exalted
Him to His right hand. That is, Christ exercises the power of God and enjoys
the honor of God. What He had from eternity according to His divine nature He
now has and uses according to His human nature as well. As such, Christ has the
authority to send the Spirit to testify about Him and to equip His apostles to
testify about Him (John 15:26-27), to guide them into all truth (John 16:13).
Notice that all three persons of the Trinity
are mentioned here, separately and distinctly, a wonderful text for this Sunday
of the Holy Trinity.
Again Peter quotes David, this time from Psalm
110:1. “For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The
Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your
footstool.”’
David did not ascend to heaven, so his words
must have their ultimate fulfillment in Him who did ascend. Just as Psalm
16:8-11 was a prophecy of Jesus’ resurrection, so this verse is a prophecy of
His exaltation. The Lord promises to give His Son victory over His enemies.
That is the meaning of the picture of the footstool, for it was the custom of
victorious kings to place their feet on the necks of those whom they conquered.
God has given Jesus power and authority to subdue our greatest enemies—sin and
death and Satan. The Son of God hid His power when He came as a servant. Now
the work of redemption is completed and God has exalted him to His right hand.”
The sending of the Spirit is a sign that this is so. The final manifestation of
this victory will occur on the day of judgment.
Peter closes strong: “Let all the house of
Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
The King was dead; long live the King!
The Holy Spirit does His work through Peter’s
sermon. He brings the people to realize that they have earned God’s judgment.
They don’t say, “We didn’t crucify Him.” They don’t say, “He is not the Christ.”
They don’t not say again, “You have had too much wine.” They are cut to the
heart and ask: “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Can you imagine what would happen if they
asked if they asked that question of anybody else on earth? You could pick any
time in history, any place on earth. What would people say if they were asked,
“What shall we do?”
What if we asked that question of the great
religions of the world? Those to the west of Jerusalem would mostly say one
must live the most pure and devoted life possible, so in the final judgment the
good deeds might outweigh the bad ones.
Those religions to the east of him might warn
that the repercussions of their guilt would take many generations, many lives
to purge. But little by little one can strive to redress the evil with acts of
love or meditation or simple suffering, and finally there could be escape from
it.
We could turn from religion to philosophy.
Pose the question to the existentialists of the last century and perhaps they
would tell you how killing the Christ is an inevitable part of the human
condition, and finally nothing can be done, except in the choices one makes and
the person one is becoming.
Ask, if you like, the man in the street, what
can be done to compensate for our wrongdoing. Mostly you will hear how one
should do one’s best, live the best one can, and try to get over the
destructive sense of guilt.
Ask a Muslim and, of course, he’ll say Jesus
was never actually crucified.
If the men of Jerusalem had asked their
question of anyone else, the answers would all have this in common: they would
tell you to look within yourself and to make your very best effort to be the
best you can. They would probably never say, “You can do nothing, but something
can be done to you.”
This is exactly what Peter says: “Repent and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins” (Acts 2:38). Confronted with the truth of God, already the hearers
were cut to the heart. They did not reach the conclusion of themselves. The Law
of God worked within them, accusing them and condemning them, and bringing them
to repentance. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, to illuminate the Law in
human hearts and minds and, “to convict the world concerning sin and
righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8).
This, however, is no cure. To know the problem
is not to solve it. So, Peter goes on, “Be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” This is where the
answer Peter gives stands apart from what anyone else would be able to
offer—the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter’s advice is
not to go and do something, but that something must be done to us. Namely, to
be baptized. The action here is entirely from the Triune God towards us, and
this is what sets it apart from every religion and philosophy as Gospel, good
news, as opposed to religious obligation.
St. Peter’s words also apply to us. Not, of
course, that we have crucified Christ, save for our sin and our treasonous
heart, for which He died. So, crucifying Christ is the crime of humanity, not
just of history. I daresay most, if not all, of the people in attendance that
Pentecost had no direct part in Jesus’ crucifixion. Yet Peter told them, “You
did it.” They were spiritually implicated, and so are we.
But just as the condemnation embraces us even
now, so too does the remedy and the promise. There are two aspects of the
promise, in particular. The one is forgiveness of sins. The second aspect is
tethered to it, as Martin Luther says: “Where there is forgiveness, there is
also life and salvation” (Luther’s Small Catechism). This is what Peter says:
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So
not only is sin removed, something is also given. In your Baptism you received
the gift of the Holy Spirit, that is to say, the gift that is the Holy
Spirit.
Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
has made you His own and knows you by name. He will return in glory for
judgment—to declare you righteous for His own sake and to deliver you to
eternal life. In the meantime, by the work of the Holy Spirit, your King
returns in His Word and Sacraments to forgive your sins and keep you His.
The King was dead; long live the King! Because
of His cross, you are forgiven for all your sins.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Unless
otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English
Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Comments