THE chief part of Peter's address on Pentecost was respecting the Prophet of Nazareth. Having done what was needful; to remove misapprehension and doubt, he proceeded to what may be called the subject of his discourse -

His remarks thereon may be classified as follows:

1. Jesus a man. The opening words recognise the humanity of the Lord. It is not necessary to assume that Peter emphasised this thought. There was then no need. No one doubted that Jesus was a man. His birth, and growth, and dependence on the ordinary conditions of life, were all known as resembling that of others. His relatives were known to the people around as their own relatives were. The divine in Him was less known than the human. Divinity and humanity blended was a new idea, and difficult to grasp. The human was unmistakably visible; the divine was unrecognised. Many are now in a danger quite the reverse of the contemporaries of Christ. The divine is made so all-absorbing that the human seems sometimes lost sight of. It will increase our appreciation of the Saviour, and intensify our love to Him and fellowship with Him, to observe how intensely human he was. Jesus was a man.

2. A man approved of God. A Jewish teacher confessed that no one could do the signs which Jesus did, unless God were with him (John 3:2). The miracles - the wonder-producing mighty deeds - which He performed, were sure signs of God's approving presence. Hence he could say, "The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me" (John 5:36). Apart from any other testimony, the miracles of the Galilean Prophet testified with unfaltering voice to His divine mission. These deeds were a testimony respecting Him from God to the Jews that none of them needed to misunderstand or be in ignorance of. The miracles were neither few nor doubtful. Jesus was publicly and thoroughly accredited. The undeniable nature of His works, and the public knowledge of them, are borne out by Peter's home-thrust, "as ye yourselves also know." The arm of Jehovah was assuredly revealed in authentication of Jesus and His mission.

3. Delivered. Jesus was placed within the power of the Jews. He was not fenced off so that they could not approach Him and do with Him as they desired. Neither His miracles nor His extraordinary nature and character were made a means of shielding Him from anything the men of Israel chose to do with Him. He never rescued Himself from their hands by miracle, though an escape from their murderous intent on one occasion is sometimes unnecessarily assumed as a miracle (Luke 4:3). No: He was delivered to them, put within their power. This was according to God's "determinate counsel and foreknowledge." Here let us observe carefully. We have a counsel or plan which was determinate, fixed, marked out beforehand - a pre-determined plan; and we have foreknowledge, knowledge beforehand. To what have the plan and foreknowledge reference? Only to Jesus being put within the power of the Jews. There is no implication of their treatment of Him having been pre-determined. God foreknew what the Israelites would do with Jesus, but certainly had not foreordained it. They were free to use Him who was delivered to them in a tender or in a cruel fashion, to receive Him as a friend or denounce Him as a foe, to hail Him as a benefactor or reject Him as an impostor. Hence it is that they were held responsible for their conduct, and actually charged with the murder of the sinless One. The determinate counsel of God is here restricted to the putting of the Messiah within the power of His own nation.

4. Treatment by the Jews. Him "ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Or, "Ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay" Him. When they got Jesus in their power, they hesitated not how to act. They remorselessly put Him to death; they cut Him off out of the land of the living. They had not at that time the power of life and death in their own hands; they were a subject people, and were more or less bound to abide by Roman decisions. But that did not prevent them from compassing their desire in reference to Jesus. They persuaded the Roman governor to gratify their blood-thirsty desire. They acted with a zeal and a pertinacity worthy of a nobler cause. The Son of God had visited them; but pre-conceptions and bitterness blinded them to the numerous credentials of His character and mission. Divine magnanimity was displayed in sending their Messiah to move among them as one of themselves, and thus be, in a sense, at their mercy; but they betrayed the high trust, and hesitated not to employ lawless men to put Him to death. Their conduct was rash, inhospitable, ignorant, and faithless.

5. Raised from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is the all-important fact in Peter's discourse. If the resurrection be established all else is clear. But such an event was alike unexpected and extraordinary. It is natural, therefore, that more space is devoted to the discussion of it than of any other point. It occupies verses 24-32. To the thirty-sixth verse may be included. Two kinds of proof are presented: the evidence of eye-witnesses, and the prophecy of the sixteenth Psalm. The former is affirmed, but not enlarged upon. "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses." To the apostles, as specially chosen witnesses, Christ had shown Himself after the resurrection by many proofs (chap. 1:1-3). Peter therefore claimed for them that they were witnesses of the fact that God had raised Jesus from the dead. But he laboured most to impress upon his audience that their own Scriptures contained intimations that the Messiah, having died, would rise again. He argued the impossibility of death retaining Him in its power. The Old Testament Writings clearly predicted His resurrection. The Spirit that inspired the writers knew what would occur. That the Messiah would immediately rise from the dead was, therefore, as certain as the knowledge of God was unerring.

In the four verses quoted from the Psalm and applied to Christ there are at least eight points for consideration.

a) Living as seeing the invisible One. He beheld Jehovah always near Him as His Helper. Hence it was that he was unmoved by any trial. It could be said of Him as of Moses, "He endured, as seeing Him who is invisible" (Heb. 11:27).

b) His heart rejoiced.

c) His tongue was glad. The joy was of a nature that would express itself. It found utterance in words.

d) The grave was illumined with hope. His flesh would rest for a little in expectation of rising again. Though death should seem to end life, resurrection would supervene and prolong His days; He would rise from the grave to die no more.

e) His soul would not be left in hades. That living principle which at death would be separated from the body, would not be left in the spirit world a disembodied spirit.

f) His flesh would not be long enough in the grave to cause corruption.

g) God had revealed to Him the paths out from death into endless life.

h) By being in God's presence, and remaining there, He would be filled with gladness.

The three first items tell of Messiah's own experience upon earth. He had God always in view, His heart was full of gladness, and His tongue gave utterance to it. The fourth item speaks of the time during which Christ lay in the grave, and indicates the hope with which even death was radiant. The fifth and sixth disclose the ground of His hopefulness; death could not keep Him, God would emancipate Him by resurrection. The seventh speaks of God revealing the pathway to never-ending life. And the eighth leads us to the contemplation of Christ's present position in God's presence, at His right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore.

Looking back over these eight points again, it will be seen that the last four are blessings attributed directly to God. The prophet, on behalf of Christ, addresses God as the deliverer from Hades and the grave, as the Revealer of the way to life, and the Source of endless pleasure. While the first four lay bare Christ's experience, the last four trace all to their origin in God.

The language of the Psalm is inapplicable to David. He had not been brought out of his grave, nor rescued from hades, nor taken into the divine presence. But, urged on by the prophetic spirit, David had given utterance to truths respecting his son the Messiah. The resurrection of Jesus was thus clearly foretold.

6. Exalted. Peter affirms the exaltation of Jesus to God's right hand, and supports his affirmation by another quotation from the Psalms. David, in Psalm 110, speaks of some one as his Lord, whom Jehovah invites to sit at His right hand. That one is David's son, Jesus of Nazareth. God exalted Jesus high above every namable being (Eph. 1:20-22). His power is supreme; foes will be made His footstool. God has constituted Him both Lord and Christ.

7. Sending the Spirit. In verse 33 the sending of the Spirit is attributed to Jesus. Being exalted He gave gifts to men (Eph. 4:8). The crowned King sent down a substantial proof that He had not forgotten His humble followers. The explanation of the strange events of Pentecost was, therefore, to be found in the exalted position of Jesus. He had shed forth that which was seen and heard. Joel's prophecy was being fulfilled through the exalted Nazarene.

The preaching of Peter is of the simplest nature. Opinion finds no place here. There is no theorising. There is doctrine, i.e., teaching; but it is a simple narration of facts, or it is based thereon. Fact after fact is told in interesting and refreshing simplicity. The speaker begins by dealing with the question that was puzzling the onlookers, how these Galileans could speak so many languages. He then hastens on to facts respecting Jesus; and these constitute the remainder of the apostle's discourse. Jesus being thoroughly certified from heaven by beneficient miracles, being placed according to God's plan in the power of the Jews, their crucifixion of Him, God raising Him from the dead and exalting Him to His own right hand, and the consequent sending of the Holy Spirit, are facts named after each other in rapid succession. These facts are all the more interesting to us, seeing that they have reference to a being of like nature with ourselves. The presentation in human form of a living, loving Saviour, was the kind of preaching employed for the attracting of men into the service of God. One who lived as a man - whose conduct came under the observation of men, and with whom they could have some measure of fellowship - was the means used to magnetise them from their sin and bind them to the living God.

The concurrent testimony in favour of Jesus was varied and conclusive. Prophecy was laden with deep thoughts about the coming Messiah. The Spirit of Christ that was in the prophets, testified beforehand of the "sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Pet. 1:11). These prophetic utterances found fulfilment in Jesus. God was with Him, stood by Him, approved of Him, and showed His approval in the most signal manner. After a three years' attestation of Him, and after the Jews had crucified Him, God still further vindicated Him by raising Him from the dead and taking Him to His own right hand, giving Him all authority in heaven and upon earth. Prophets foretold, and in due time God gave ample attestation of the actual presence of the promised One. The Holy Spirit was in like manner a witness. He was to testify of Christ. No sooner did He come, on the day of Pentecost, than he guided the apostles to tell the wonderful works of God in connection with Jesus of Nazareth. The Spirit testified, not of Himself, nor of His own work, but of the work and place of Jesus. The apostles, too, rightly claimed to be witnesses. They had been eye-witnesses of His works, crucifixion, and resurrection life. Prophecy, and God's own hand in the extraordinary deeds of Christ's life, and the Holy Spirit through the apostles, and the apostles themselves, bore one united testimony to Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were co-operating. The Father sent the Son, and the Son after His coronation sent the Holy Spirit. Jesus came as at once the Revealer of God and the Saviour of mankind. His own character was a manifestation of the character of the Father. He that had seen Him had seen the Father. His teaching, works, and whole life brought to view, to an extent that man otherwise could not have learned, the exceeding love of Him who dwells in inaccessible light. By means of this exhibition of love Jesus sought to win hearts to God, and thereby turn sinners from the error of their ways. His love was the constraining power. Men were to be so won to the Saviour that they could say, "We love Him, because He first loved us." In continuance of that love, even in His departure from earth, he sent the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was promised to abide with the disciples, to be a Comforter to, and Advocate for them in the absence of their Master, to bring all things to their remembrance, to teach them, guide them, give them what was needful to say, and, dwelling in the, help them in their infirmities. Such a united and continuous presentation of heavenly love might well impress thoughtful hearts and induce them to become the servants of so loving a Master.

Thus far the Jews had withstood the combined testimony. When a good deed was done and could not be denied, there were attempts made to thwart its natural influence. They attempted to explain the works of Jesus on the hypothesis of a Beelzebub alliance. Unflinching opposition filled the place that ought to have been occupied by honest and careful examination. The testimony of their own prophets was unheard, being buried amid human traditions and foregone conclusions. The voice of the spirit in prophecy, i.e., the voice of God, and the words and teaching of Jesus, i.e., the words and teaching of God, were strenuously, though ignorantly, opposed. The Jews stood in antagonism to Jesus of Nazareth, to their own writings, to the Holy Spirit who dictated those writings, and to God who gave them and wrought with Jesus of Nazareth.