“Father God, You have revealed Jesus to us in the Scriptures. Our minds are closed. We have much to learn from You. You reveal to us Your ways as we place our trust in You. Thank You for Your mercy on us. In Your name, we pray. Amen.”
Peter and John were speaking to this Jewish audience on the temple porch. Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.
Peter began by connecting the Jews to the God of their fathers. The Jews needed to know that God had glorified Jesus. This was an important piece that had to fall in place for the message of faith in Jesus, to be presented. The Jews had to come into the Shalom of God.
This truth that Jesus is glorified by the God of their fathers, has not been accepted even till today by the Jews. This is a tragedy. There will come a terrible day when their eyes will be opened, they will know Jesus and they will mourn.
Zechariah 12:10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
God is God of their fathers was important for He was their living God. Matthew 22:32 ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
The living God had attested to Jesus in the Scriptures. Here are a few passages from the Psalms, where God is glorifying Jesus.
Psalms 2:6-12 “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” (7) “I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. (8) Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. (9) You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ ” (10) Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. (11) Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling. (12) Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
Jesus was to bring God’s kingdom here on earth. When we come to Jesus as our King, we place our trust in Him. We surrender and submit to Him, we give ourselves to His authority over us, and *we live by His will, not ours. This is how we acknowledge Jesus as our King.
Psalms 110:1-2 A Psalm of David. The LORD said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” (2) The LORD shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies!
God had established through His Scriptures that Jesus is King and His rule is a reality. The kingdom of Jesus is forever.
Psalms 45:6-7 Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. (7) You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.
These and others scriptures affirmed that God had glorified Jesus as King to rule forever. These were Scriptures that the Jews meditated upon, regularly. Though they knew details of God glorifying His Son, their eyes had not opened to know Jesus, as their Messiah.
Paul and Barnabas explain this same matter to the Jews, gathered in the synagogue in Antioch, Pisidia. Acts 13:26-28 “Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. (27) For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. (28) And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death.
As Peter begins his message to this Jewish audience, he is making them know that the God of their fathers has glorified Jesus, whom they did not recognise as the Messiah. Instead of surrendering to Jesus as King, they asked Pilate to put Jesus to death.
This was not only the problem of the Jews. Even His disciples were not able to connect the dots and know Jesus as their Messiah, for whom the Jews are still waiting. This is heart-breaking, for the disciples had verbally made known Jesus as the Messiah.
As Peter establishes Jesus as the one glorified by the God of their fathers, it was a revelation of his own transition into knowing Jesus as His Lord and King. May we be rooted in knowing our King and Saviour, as we present Him to our audiences.