Monday Meditation
February 03, 2014
From the desk of Dr. A.J. Higgins
Five Things God Did for His Son
Acts 2:22, 23, 24, 32, 36
Peter’s great discourse on the day of Pentecost was a prototype for all preachers. His message was Christ-centered and Christ-saturated. In it he details at least five things which God did for His Son. First of all:
A Man approved of God: God marked Him out by miracles and signs and wonders. Two thousand years earlier, God had certified Moses to the nation by signs. Now He sent His Son with a message far greater and an Exodus and redemption far more extensive. His credentials marked Him out, not as a messenger from God, but as the Son of God. Peter could confidently affirm that they knew all about the credentials as they were done among them as they well knew.
Delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God: But God did something else. Peter goes on to say that He was delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God. God actually determined, in His wisdom, to redeem man by giving His Son up to death at the wicked hands of lawless men. Peter makes no apology for saying that they had crucified and slain the One Whom God had delivered over to their hands.
Whom God hath raised up: But the story of God’s dealings with His Son do not end with what wicked men were permitted to do. “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death.”The God Who had approved Him and delivered Him up, now raised Him up as evidence that death could not hold Him captive. The counsels of men which put Him to death ended at the grave. God raised Him to frustrate all their further counsels of sealing His body and guarding it from removal.
Being by the right hand of God exalted: What triumph and joy must have filled Peter’s heart and voice as He announced that the One they had sought to keep in the grave was not only alive, but was now exalted to the right hand of God. Beyond the reach of men, He now occupied the highest position in the universe.
God hath made that same Jesus both Lord and Christ: and to the honor of His resurrection and exaltation, there has been added the vindication and verification by God that He is indeed Lord and Christ. He was, of course, Lord and Christ while here on earth, though unknown and rejected. But now in resurrection and exaltation, God has shown to all that His Son is both Lord, as to His claims of deity, and the true Messiah as to His claim to the throne.
Peter has traced Him from the dusty roads of Galilee and Jerusalem performing miracles, up to the throne of God, resplendent in His glory.
Consider:
1. Go through the preaching in the Acts and notice how prominent the theme of resurrection was in the preaching of the apostles.
2. Gather together the titles used of the Lord Jesus in Acts. Here in chapter 2, we have Lord and Christ. Elsewhere, He is the Prince of Life. Add others.
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