Acts 5:32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to them that obey him. The book of Acts is one continuous testimony to the Ascension. As the Gospels contain the record of what Jesus began, so the Acts contain the record of what He continued "to do and teach" (Acts 1:1). Our Lord prolongs His days, and some of the earliest of the new "days of the Son of Man" are recorded here. This word of St. Peter sums up the witness to the Ascension in a more compendious form than any other. It unites the two testimonies — of God and man — as they are not elsewhere — united. Let us consider these as — I. THE SUM OF THE HISTORICAL TESTIMONY TO THE FACTS OF THE GOSPEL. That which the evangelists afterwards wrote the apostles now preach under the inspiration of the same Spirit, viz. — 1. The Divine mission of Christ. "The God of our fathers raised up His Son Jesus." Peter is here, and as long as we follow him in this book, a minister of the circumcision. Jesus in His preaching is the promise given to the fathers of the Jewish covenant. "Beginning at Jerusalem " He testifies to the council, who, however, could only receive the first principles of the doctrine of the dignity of Christ. Hence the reserve with which the holy name is always introduced. It is not God's "only begotten Son," but His "Servant" Son, whom He raised up of the seed of David, a prophet approved of God as the other prophets were. But St. Peter did not preach only for Jews. His words are so ordered as to bear the higher and broader meaning. The "Servant" was not only a descendant of Abraham and a prophet like unto Moses; God "raised Him up" in a sense that has no parallel. As Divine, Christ's goings forth were from everlasting; as human, He was raised up by a peculiar and heavenly generation. St. Paul at Antioch takes up Peter's words, and gives them the wider application. 2. The death of Christ. Here also we mark the specific application to Jewish hearers. St. Peter proclaimed Christ's death as it could only have been proclaimed to the actual crucifiers. The same message that offered them pardon painted their crime in its most awful colours. The death of Christ is the central theme of New Testament testimony as declared by human witnesses under the direction of the Holy Ghost. As a fact, it has the largest place in the record. Here only all the evangelists unite, and wherever we turn in the later scriptures the Crucifixion is always near at hand. This, however, is a light thing compared with the meaning of the event. The "tree" becomes the "Cross," and it is placed in the centre of New Testament theology. While the work of Christ's mission is the whole sum of truth, the Cross is the whole sum of Christ's work, and it is at the foot of the Cross that the apostles survey the whole truth as it is in Jesus. 3. The exaltation of Christ. Once more we mark the influence of Peter's hearers. Every word is chosen to mark the contrast between the act of men and the act of God. They raised Him up to the tree; God raised Him up to a glory that was the measure of His humiliation. This is the testimony of the Holy Ghost to all mankind, and in a special sense. The apostles could only witness to Christ's life, death, resurrection, and ascension, but the Spirit throughout the entire New Testament proclaims through the apostles that Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. II. THE SAVING SUPREMACY OF CHRIST AS OUR PRINCE AND SAVIOUR AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER. It was declared by our Lord that the Spirit should glorify Him after His departure, and one part of that office He discharged by giving Him the new names acquired by His death. 1. Christ became, by His ascension, the Prince of His people. He was not that in the deepest and widest sense until He was received into the heavens. Then God highly exalted Him because of the suffering of death. 2. So also He became our Saviour, in the most comprehensive sense only, when, all His offices complete, He began His mediatorial reign. "His name shall be called Jesus," said the angel; and by that name He was always known. "Unto you is born a Saviour," said the angels; but we never hear that name given Him till now. 3. But the full significance of the new name is found only in the combination. (1) He is the Saviour of the subjects of His kingdom, and none are His true subjects who are not delivered by His power from their guilt, their subjection to sin and the empire of Satan. The whole tenor of His instructions is faithful to the one idea of the gathering out of the world a people who are saved from their sins. As He began, so He ended with the "kingdom of heaven." This also was the burden of apostolic testimony. St. Peter (chap. Acts 2.) proclaims a saving grace that rescues souls from an untoward generation and adds them to the Church as saved. And the Holy Ghost everywhere bears the same testimony. The kingdom is still not of this world. (2) And He is the Ruler over those whom He saves. Absolute submission to His authority is the law of His Church — a law to which the Spirit everywhere bears testimony. Our salvation is made perfect by holy obedience. This testimony, added to the former, completes the witness to the Redeemer's lordship in heaven. Those who would make Him a king over all men alike are rebuked by the declaration that He is a prince only as He is a Saviour. Those who would make Him only a Saviour are rebuked by the declaration that He is a Saviour only as He is a prince. III. THE SALVATION WHICH OUR PRINCE IN HEAVEN BESTOWS ON MAN UPON EARTH. And here St. Peter preaches, as the organ of the Holy Ghost, the "common salvation," to use his own phrase, in a manner that is by no means common. 1. Jesus in heaven is the Giver of repentance and pardon. These two words express the whole sum of salvation provided in Christ and proclaimed in His gospel. The former comprises all that is to be wrought in man as preparation; the latter comprises all that man, thus prepared, receives from Christ's mercy. The two together comprise "all the words of this life." 2. To these things bear the apostles witness, and so does also the Holy Ghost — (1) As the vindicator of Christ's claims to all who hear the gospel, but more specifically to those who obey. (2) As the revealer of Christ's mercy. (WB. Pope, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. |
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