All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name!

“Immanuel Spirit” – Part 6

(Acts 2:34-36, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, January 30, 2011)

34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit at my right hand,

35 until I make your enemies your footstool.’

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

For David did not ascend into the heavens... (34)

King David was a man. Like every man since Adam, he lived and he died. When he died, one of his sons took his place. David was, among other things, a writer. We still sing his religious poetry today, 3000 years later. When David died, he was an honored man in Israel. His body was buried in a tomb, and people mourned. 1000 years after David, people in Israel still knew where David's tomb was. That's why Peter states very clearly that David, like all people, had a body that saw corruption. And that's why Peter was certain that David's poems were not all about David. Many of his poems were about a future man who would come, a promised Descendant.

When David died and was buried, his body rested in the grave. He did not rise from the dead, and his body did not ascend into heaven. He has a heavenly existence now, even a visible heavenly existence if we can learn anything from the way that Moses appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. But David, in heaven today, is still waiting for the complete fulfillment of God's promises concerning his own flesh on earth. Jesus of Nazareth is not waiting for that fulfillment. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He did not leave anything of His earthly flesh behind in the tomb where his body was placed for three days. The flesh of David did not ascend into the heavens. The flesh of Jesus did.

The Lord said to my Lord... (34-35)

Peter insists on this point because one of David's poems has to be about Jesus in heaven. It cannot just be about David in heaven. This poem, that we call Psalm 110, is the third passage that Peter is quoting to a crowd of thousands who had seen amazing manifestations of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit from on high. The first passage was from Joel 2. In that text Joel prophesied about a coming age when the Spirit of God would ultimately be poured out upon all flesh. But that was not the only thing that Joel predicted. He also spoke about the Day of the Lord's judgment, and then he said, that all who call upon the Name of the Lord would be saved.

The second passage was Psalm 16, where David had given voice as a prophet to the future Messiah, saying that God would not let His Holy One see corruption. Peter insisted that this was a prophesy of the Messiah's resurrection from the dead. David had seen it from afar, and had written about it in Psalm 16. But Peter and the rest had seen it close up. Jesus had invited them to see Him and to touch Him so that they could know that He had a real body and that He was still alive. See 1 John 1.

Now Peter quotes his third passage, another psalm of David, Psalm 110. “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” While this psalm was a wonderful piece of religious poetry that had been around for 1000 years at the time when Jesus ascended to heaven and took His royal place at the right hand of the Father, it contained a great mystery. Just a short while before the Lord's departure, Jesus had quoted Psalm 110, and had asked His enemies a key question about Psalm 110, and no one could answer His question.

Matthew 22:41-46 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet’?

If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Even His friends did not understand the mystery of Psalm 110. But now, Peter understands, and you can understand. Jesus is Lord. He is David's son according to His human nature, but He is also David's Lord according to His divine nature. Mystery solved. Now we are able to look at the quote and to see even more. When Jesus of Nazareth returned to heaven, victorious from His mission of cross love for you, His Father welcomed His ascended Son back to heavenly realms. He said, “Sit at My right hand.” Jesus is in the place of greatest authority now.

But the Father continues. He says, “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Father is at work over these centuries, establishing the supremacy of Jesus over every usurper of the heavenly throne. Yahweh/Jehovah the Lord the Father, insists that Jesus, Adonai/the Lord the Son, is absolutely, entirely, exhaustively, uncompromisingly, and delightfully, the Lord. Throughout the centuries since His ascension, many have thought that Jesus was only a phase, and that humanity would evolve beyond the Jesus phase of our planetary spirituality into the next better religious alternative. This idea goes all the way back to Islam. Islam contends that Jesus was a great prophet of God, but that Mohammed is a superior prophet. David's poem, written 1700 years before Mohammed, quoted by Jesus, and now by Peter, insists that Jesus is the Lord forever, until and beyond the day when all His potential enemies are crushed under His feet. See Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, and Philippians 2:9-11. Jesus used Psalm 110 to expose that no one knew the mystery of David's poem. Peter quoted Psalm 110 to reveal that mystery: that Jesus, the descendant of David, the divine Son of God, is Lord.

Let all the house of Israel know... (36)

Such a great assertion, that one man of history is the Lord of all history and all eternity, if it is true, demands a response. Peter does something that we don't do enough. He presses the divine claims of Jesus without ambiguity or apology. He says, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Peter spoke to the gathered house of Israel who were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost that year. You and I speak in our own place and time. The church still speaks with our words and with our lives. We speak with our songs. Not only do we sing the old, old songs, like David's wonderful poem. We also sing newer songs like “All hail the power of Jesus' Name.” We try to sing it to a tune that fits the words. We want to sing in a way that matches the character, the willing lowliness, the love, and the unparalleled majesty of the Lord.

If we can do that with a song, we can sing that same truth through the melody and harmony of our lives together. This is the way that the song lives, and is passed along to others. Jesus is shown to be Lord through your beautiful life. Jesus is Lord. Yours sins brought Him to the cross. We are guilty of the death of the one who is the Christ of God and the Lord and Savior of His people. But we know what it is to be saved. We can sing a new song to the Lord. We can live.

1. What happened to David after death? How was the experience of Jesus different?

2. Why does Peter quote Psalm 110?

3. How did Jesus use Psalm 110?

4. How is Jesus Lord and Christ? Are we guilty of the death of Jesus?

OT Passage: Psalm 110