22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” Acts 2:22-24
Acts 2:1 sets the scene on Pentecost Day. The Spirit of God falls on His people and fills them with His perfect presence and power. And in the midst of the phenomenon a bewildered God-fearing Jewish crowd hears Peter give the first Easter sermon recorded in the Bible. The church is birthed and a foundational message is preached in Jerusalem to an assembly from many tribes, tongues and nations.
When we read Peter’s words several truths of the Christian faith emerge including these three: God’s concealed plan is realized, our greatest foes are obliterated (death and sin), and our “victor ludorum” is hailed.
God’s concealed plan is realized
Imagine being present for these events. What questions would we ponder in the events that led up to this moment. “Where was God? Why was He silent while His Son was mistreated and killed? What good can come from it?
People often ask similar questions about their circumstances such as, “Why did God DO this?” When we entertain these kinds of questions, we are assuming a particular view of God’s relationship with the world. Asking, “Where was God?” reveals an assumption that God runs all affairs and he must have fallen asleep at the wheel in this case. Asking, “Why God did this?” assumes that He orchestrates the world like a marionette doll pulling humanities strings and dictating how people respond thereby controlling all circumstance.
But that’s not what Peter reveals about God in his short sermon. He says, “This man, Jesus Christ, was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge.” Perhaps this sounds like the marionette at work. But then Peter goes on to say, “And you with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”
Here lays a wild paradox. When bad things happen around us, we tend to respond by either saying, God controls it all, so He must not love us, or worse yet: hates us, He’s evil. Or some people conclude, “There is no God; we are in charge of all that occurs in our world, and we determine our own circumstances.” In other words, it’s either all our fault or all God’s fault. But Peter gives a third perspective.
Peter says, on the one hand, Jesus’ dying on the cross was central to the Father’s plan. But on the other hand, humanity’s wickedness plays a big part. People are unequivocally responsible, and yet God is completely in control. In other words, evil is the result of human actions, yet God is smack dab in the middle of the circumstance. He is neither absent, nor responsible. But He always presents works out plan.
This doesn’t mean that evil is His action, or on the other hand that He is powerless in the midst of it. Instead, God who knows and works with the complexities of human agency and history. And He is not simply a controller of events but a God who has a plan and works within the context of our human free will.
Elisabeth Elliot once told a story of visiting a farm in North Wales. While there, she observed a dog named Mack nipping at the heels of a herd of sheep, barking and chasing them down a hill into a small enclosure where their shepherd awaited their entry. When they entered he grabbed them one by one by the horns, picked them up and fully immersed them into a vat filled with chemical disinfectant. He held the terrified sheep under for a few seconds, not allowing them to come out as the substance covered their faces and went into their nostrils. Each ewe and ram must have felt they were being drowned. But then finally the herder released them from the bath.
In retelling this story Eliot goes on to ask, “What must the sheep have been thinking when this was happening to them?” She said, If they could speak they probably would have said the shepherd was trying to kill them.
The shepherd was actually trying to save them. They did not have the competency to understand that without his aggressive measures they would be dead or at least miserably ill. Elisabeth Elliot said, “The shepherd had a plan, and the sheep couldn’t see it.”
We also have a shepherd, and He has a plan. Even though it’s concealed and I don’t know what it is, God always has a plan in the events of our lives, and it’s always for our good.
Jesus’ cross and resurrection demonstrate that “all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.” But we can be fairly certain we would not have thought that if we were there as onlookers to His crucifixion.
Our greatest foes are obliterated
Yet here is the Good News. Our greatest foes are broken in His death. I love how Peter describes the resurrection in this passage. He says, “God raised him up from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” The Greek word used here for “hold” actually means “to grip.” It denotes strength. In other words, Jesus Christ broke the powerful grip of death.
What does this mean practically for us today? We can no longer be confined to the grave by death. He broke its power. What was once a graveyard is now a flower garden! What was once a definitive end, is now the door open to our new life in Him. The Bible teaches us this means at least two things are true for us as Christians.
He broke the hold of death objectively. Death had no right over Him! And His death paid the penalty for our sin, making it so it holds no right over us. It is true that someday death will take each of us physically. But for those seated in Jesus, it will never take them spiritually. In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.”
There are two deaths. In physical death we are separated from our bodies. In spiritual death a person is separated from God forever as a result of their sin. The penalty of sin is not just physical death. It’s eternal death. But Jesus Christ paid this penalty for all that accept His free gift. This means that He not only broke the power of death objectively (when we put our faith in Him). In the resurrection, He also broke the power of death subjectively for us. What do I mean by subjectively? He broke the fear of death for all who place their faith in Him.
In one of his poems 17th century poet George Herbert, wrote that death used to be an executioner. But in Jesus’ death and resurrection, He made death just a gardener. The cross and resurrection mark the end of any cause for the fear of death. Death cannot keep its hold on Jesus. And it cannot keep its hold on anyone that has their faith in Him!
Hail our “victor ludorum”
Hebrews 2 talks of Jesus freeing us from the fear of death. “He is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” The Greek word for pioneer is “archegos” It’s actually better translated as “champion,” and not “pioneer.” Hebrews 2:10,11 says “In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make “the archegos” or “the champion” of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. He, too, shared in their humanity, so that by his death, he breaks the power of the enemy who holds the power of death. And by doing so he frees those who all their lives were in bondage to fear of death.”
In my 38 years as a minister, I often walked with people in their last days with many conversations where people sadly did not understand the Good News of Jesus. These were people who knew death was coming for them, and they weren’t ready. Why weren’t they ready? Often they said, “I haven’t lived a good enough life.”
But the point of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ, already met death, and already destroyed its power. It is nothing that you or I do that breaks its power. We cannot possibly do this on our own. It’s only by Jesus’ work, that all death can do anymore is make us more glorious and wonderful than we are in this present life. Death is defeated by Jesus’ resurrection. It’s our great but defeated enemy.
I love how Paul says, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” –I Corinthians 15:55 Paul taunts death. He makes fun of it. Christians can have this kind of confidence. Death has no power over us. Our “victor ludorum” is hailed. (“ludorum” is Latin for champion). Jesus is the champion! And in Him we are free.
