“Thank You, Lord Jesus, that You have raised us from death to life. This You have done by suffering the pain of death in the depths of Sheol, paying the full price of the cost of our sin, vanquishing death itself and then rising again. Now, You are positioning us to be Your witnesses. Thank You for the great work that You have done in our lives and through our lives, many others are being added into Your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.”
Acts 2:32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
This is where Peter is giving perspective to his audience. Since God has done this great work of raising Jesus from the dead, we are witnesses to Jesus. We are witnesses to Jesus because we have passed from death to life. We are to bring many to faith in Jesus and into the Shalom of God.
Luke 24:44-49 Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” (45) And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. (46) Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, (47) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. (48) And you are witnesses of these things. (49) Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
This passage gives us some very important foundational principles on which we live our lives today.
Everything about our lives is an outcome of what is written in the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms. Therefore, our lives are a seamless continuation of what the Lord is accomplishing over time. We have understood that the suffering of Christ, was not just the suffering of His death on the cross, but it was the agony that He experienced in the depths of Sheol. There He paid the full price of our death. Jesus defeated death. No one else has settled the consequence of man’s sin, which is death. It is because Jesus rose from the dead that man has hope. Man can now come back to fullness of life because of the resurrection of Jesus. Man can now repent and have remission of our sins. No one can provide for us the forgiveness of our sins. It is only Jesus, for He has settled the cost of our sin, which is death. We have the message of hope to the nations and therefore we are His witnesses. This work of witnessing to all nations, is done in the Holy Spirit. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we witness Christ with power and there will be signs and wonders that will take place. We do not focus on the miracles but our task is to bring people to faith in Jesus. The natural and normal process for us to be witnesses to Jesus is with the accompaniment of signs and wonders.We see examples of witnessing that take place through the Apostles.
Acts 10:39-43 And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. (40) Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, (41) not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. (42) And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. (43) To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”
The crucial and vital matter that Peter is bringing across here is that Jesus is the one ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead. In other words, every human being must reckon with Christ. Jesus is not just the God of the Christians. Jesus is Lord of all. Jesus has conquered death and He has risen from the dead. Therefore, every man will be judged before Christ. For the wages of sin is death and all have sinned before God.
Now, when people place their faith in Christ, they have remission of their sins and they enter the Shalom rest of God.
This is the same witness that Apostle Paul gave to a Gentile audience in Athens.
Acts 17:31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
The basis for judgement for the entire human race is the fact that Jesus has settled the cost of man’s sin, which is death. He did this by going to the depths of Sheol, paying the price of our sin and then vanquishing death itself. He then has risen from the dead so that man can place his faith in Jesus and have remission of sins and eternal life.
We are witnesses to Jesus to the nations.