Acts 2:14-36
14-21. Peter, standing up with the eleven—in advance, perhaps, of the rest.
15. these are not drunken—meaning, not the Eleven, but the body of the disciples.
but the third hour—nine A.M. (see Ec 10:16; Isa 5:11; 1Th 5:17).14-21. Peter, standing up with the eleven—in advance, perhaps, of the rest.
17. in the last days—meaning, the days of the Messiah (Isa 2:2); as closing all preparatory arrangements, and constituting the final dispensation of God's kingdom on earth.
pour out of my Spirit—in contrast with the mere drops of all preceding time. upon all flesh—hitherto confined to the seed of Abraham. sons . . . daughters . . . young men . . . old men . . . servants . . . handmaidens—without distinction of sex, age, or rank. see visions . . . dream dreams—This is a mere accommodation to the ways in which the Spirit operated under the ancient economy, when the prediction was delivered; for in the New Testament, visions and dreams are rather the exception than the rule.14-21. Peter, standing up with the eleven—in advance, perhaps, of the rest.
19. I will show wonders, &c.—referring to the signs which were to precede the destruction of Jerusalem (see on Lu 21:25-28).
14-21. Peter, standing up with the eleven—in advance, perhaps, of the rest.
21. whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved—This points to the permanent establishment of the economy of salvation, which followed on the breaking up of the Jewish state.
22-28. a man approved of God—rather, "authenticated," "proved," or "demonstrated to be from God."
by miracles . . . which God did by him—This is not a low view of our Lord's miracles, as has been alleged, nor inconsistent with Joh 2:11, but is in strict accordance with His progress from humiliation to glory, and with His own words in Joh 5:19. This view of Christ is here dwelt on to exhibit to the Jews the whole course of Jesus of Nazareth as the ordinance and doing of the God of Israel [ALFORD].23. determinate counsel and foreknowledge—God's fixed plan and perfect foresight of all the steps involved in it.
ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain—How strikingly is the criminality of Christ's murderers here presented in harmony with the eternal purpose to surrender Him into their hands!24. was not possible he should be holden of it—Glorious saying! It was indeed impossible that "the Living One" should remain "among the dead" (Lu 24:5); but here, the impossibility seems to refer to the prophetic assurance that He should not see corruption.
22-28. a man approved of God—rather, "authenticated," "proved," or "demonstrated to be from God."
by miracles . . . which God did by him—This is not a low view of our Lord's miracles, as has been alleged, nor inconsistent with Joh 2:11, but is in strict accordance with His progress from humiliation to glory, and with His own words in Joh 5:19. This view of Christ is here dwelt on to exhibit to the Jews the whole course of Jesus of Nazareth as the ordinance and doing of the God of Israel [ALFORD].27. wilt not leave my soul in hell—in its disembodied state (see on Lu 16:23).
neither . . . suffer thine Holy One to see corruption—in the grave.28. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life—that is, resurrection-life.
thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance—that is, in glory; as is plain from the whole connection and the actual words of the sixteenth Psalm.29-36. David . . . is . . . dead and buried, &c.—Peter, full of the Holy Ghost, sees in this sixteenth Psalm, one Holy Man, whose life of high devotedness and lofty spirituality is crowned with the assurance, that though He taste of death, He shall rise again without seeing corruption, and be admitted to the bliss of God's immediate presence. Now as this was palpably untrue of David, it could be meant only of One other, even of Him whom David was taught to expect as the final Occupant of the throne of Israel. (Those, therefore, and they are many, who take David himself to be the subject of this Psalm, and the words quoted to refer to Christ only in a more eminent sense, nullify the whole argument of the apostle). The Psalm is then affirmed to have had its only proper fulfilment in JESUS, of whose resurrection and ascension they were witnesses, while the glorious effusion of the Spirit by the hand of the ascended One, setting an infallible seal upon all, was even then witnessed by the thousands who stood listening to Him. A further illustration of Messiah's ascension and session at God's right hand is drawn from Ps 110:1, in which David cannot be thought to speak of himself, seeing he is still in his grave.
36. Therefore—that is, to sum up all.
let all the house of Israel—for in this first discourse the appeal is formally made to the whole house of Israel, as the then existing Kingdom of God. know assuredly—by indisputable facts, fulfilled predictions, and the seal of the Holy Ghost set upon all. that God hath made—for Peter's object was to show them that, instead of interfering with the arrangements of the God of Israel, these events were His own high movements. this same Jesus, whom ye have crucified—"The sting is at the close" [BENGEL]. To prove to them merely that Jesus was the Messiah might have left them all unchanged in heart. But to convince them that He whom they had crucified had been by the right hand of God exalted, and constituted the "LORD" whom David in spirit adored, to whom every knee shall bow, and the CHRIST of God, was to bring them to "look on Him whom they had pierced and mourn for Him."