Or, Why the Trinity Couldn't Wait for Easter
Scripture: Acts 13:32-39
Date: April 8, 2012
Speaker: Sean Higgins
We could sooner cause the sun to stop (or to shine in Washington state) than we could overstate the importance of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. His triumph over death makes everything new, not just from our perspective, but from God’s perspective. No being in the universe had more eggs in His Easter basket than the Trinity. No one was more invested in or more excited about the risen Son than God Himself.
There’s little doubt that Jesus’ disciples breathed differently when they saw Jesus alive again. It’s difficult to imagine how fragile they must have felt all weekend, nor can we fully appreciate the spring in their singing by mid-morning Sunday. Christians since then, those who are alive to their depravity and mortality, are eager for worship on Easter. But no one looked forward to, or looks back at, the eternal significance of Christ’s resurrection as much as God. No matter how hard we try, we won’t outshine His delight in what this day brings.
God had been telling people for generations that He was going to send a Savior King. And for generations, His people waited and, for the most part, missed His message. The Jews, in particular, should have recognized Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s revelation. We saw last Sunday in John’s gospel that Jesus told the Jews that they searched the Scriptures thinking that in the them they had eternal life. Jesus said the Scriptures pointed to Himself (John 5:39). Not only did the Scriptures witness to Jesus’ Sonhood, they also pointed to Jesus’ sacrifice. Paul said as much in his first letter to the Corinthians.
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3–4, ESV)
The death, burial, and resurrection happened “in accordance with the Scriptures,” a phrase repeated to make the point. These were the Old Testament Scriptures, since neither the Gospels or Epistles had been written.
No one had more on the line than the Trinity. From a human perspective, no one’s name or word or or honor was more at stake. His covenant promises had been spoken, repeated, and written down but not fulfilled. When God raised Jesus from the dead, His faithfulness and His promises were proven like never before. God couldn’t wait to turn forgiveness for sin and fellowship with Himself from a promise to a reality for all who believe. [Yes, obviously God could wait and did wait. I’m saying it that way to emphasize His eagerness for us.]
It shouldn’t surprise us, then, that when the apostles preached, they used the OT to show Jesus as the Christ and that the promises were fulfilled in Christ. One such sermon is recorded in Acts 13:13-41, with the fallout in verses 42-52. “Paul and his companions” traveled over 100 miles “from Perga,” up some 3600 feet in elevation, “and came to Antioch in Pisidia” (Acts 13:14) and went to the Synagogue for a Sabbath service. Perhaps they were expected since they were invited to share a word of encouragement for the people (verse 15). The sermon starts in the second half of verse 16.
Acts 13:16b-41 [worth reading since it is guaranteed by divine inspiration to be a good sermon]
In verses 16b-25, Paul gives a short history of Israel, their stay in and deliverance from Egypt, their 40 years in the wilderness, their conquest of the promised land. Paul includes their request for a king, fulfilled in Saul first and then in David, to whom God promised an everlasting kingdom. David’s offspring was Jesus, as witnessed by John the Baptist. The point in the history lesson is to show God’s mercy to His people while waiting to fulfill His promises. All of these blessings were undeserved mercies and none of them compare to the greatest mercy of all in verses 26-37.
Here is “the message of salvation,” (verse 26), the “good news that God promised to the fathers” (verse 32). This is the message that was missed by those in Jerusalem even though they had “the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath” (verse 33). They “carried out all that was written of him” (verse 29), killing the Christ on a tree and burying Him.
God had “raised up” David but here’s a better raising (same verb in verse 22 as following). “But God raised [David’s offspring, Jesus] from the dead!” (verse 30) God fulfilled promises by “raising Jesus” (verse 33). God “raised up” Jesus (verse 37). Paul quotes three Old Testament passages (verses 33-35) that get us to the heart of why God cares so much about Easter, about the empty tomb. The “good news” is that the resurrection of Jesus fulfills God’s promises for good.
God declared Jesus to be the Son of God by raising Him from the dead.
And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm,
“‘You are my Son,
today I have begotten you.’
(Acts 13:32–33, ESV)
The first OT quote comes from Psalm 2, a song that recalls David’s coronation as king. It was a royal psalm, with double-layered fulfillment, one for David himself and one for David’s offspring. As David was anointed to the throne by Samuel, he represented the coming King, the one and only Son of God.
Psalm 2 anticipates the resolution of 2 Samuel 7 (especially verses 4-17), God’s promise to David to make his kingdom everlasting (instead of having David build a temple). Through David’s offspring all nations would be blessed if they took refuge in serving the Son rather than rebelling against His rule.
Easter declared to the world that Jesus is this divine king. Paul summarizes the same point in Romans 1.
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, (Romans 1:1–4, ESV)
Again, the gospel was “promised beforehand” where? “Through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.” Christ Jesus “was declared [“marked out” YNG] to be the Son of God in power…by his resurrection from the dead.”
Paul’s quote of Psalm 2:7 in Acts 13:33, “today I have begotten you,” doesn’t refer to the incarnation but to the resurrection. Though the Father and Son have been Father and Son eternally, the resurrection fixed it so irrefutably. God couldn’t wait for Easter to anoint His Son as King. The resurrection confirms God’s promise to reign in Jesus.
God declared Jesus to be the Source of joy, peace, and abundance by raising Him from the dead.
And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way,
“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’
(Acts 13:34, ESV)
The second OT quote comes from Isaiah 55, among the chapters about the Suffering Servant, chapters written by Isaiah to comfort the Israelites soon to be captive in Babylon. The Servant is the One who was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). The One on whom the LORD laid our iniquity (53:6). He is the righteous one who will account many as righteous (53:11), the One through whom God abundantly pardons and blesses. God invites the soul-needy to be satisfied!
“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
(Isaiah 55:1-3, 6–7, ESV)
Jesus is the One who makes all this possible, who makes pardon possible, who fulfills the requirements in God’s eternal covenant.
God’s promise was not only to establish a king over His people in the line of David, but also to save His people. He had planned to satisfy the thirsty, to feed the hungry, to have compassion on the wicked. This is part of the “everlasting covenant” (Isaiah 55:3), to give life to souls. Jesus secures the covenant blessings by His blood.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, (Hebrews 13:20, ESV)
In Acts 13:34, Paul preached that the “fact that [God] raised [Jesus] from the dead” makes certain “the holy and sure blessings of David.” God who is love and grace couldn’t wait for Easter to identify the source of blessing and life for His people. The resurrection confirms God’s promise to give in Jesus (think Romans 8:32).
God declared Jesus as the First-fruits of eternal life by raising Him from the dead.
Therefore he says also in another psalm,
“‘You will not let your Holy One see corruption.’
(Acts 13:35, ESV)
The third OT quote comes from Psalm 16, another royal psalm, this one written by King David. The apostle Peter also quoted Psalm 16:8-10 in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:25-28), proving that Psalm 16 was well-known and connected with Messianic expectations.
Though David wrote Psalm 16 and though much of it applied immediately to himself, verse 10 is evidence that the Spirit-breathed writings also had further application beyond what the human author could see. Paul goes on to explain in Acts that verse 10 couldn’t apply to David.
For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption, but he whom God raised up did not see corruption. (Acts 13:36–37, ESV)
David didn’t expect that his own body would not be “corrupted,” but he did foresee the “Holy One” whose body would not “see corruption.” Jesus didn’t stay in the grave.
Significant in this raising is that all those who are in Christ will be raised as well. He is the first-fruits of body resurrection for all His people.
in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first-fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:20–23, ESV)
In the second Adam, the man from heaven, “the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). God couldn’t wait for Easter to show the fulfillment of bodily resurrection for all His people. The resurrection confirms God’s promise to make alive in Jesus.
The resurrection:
Paul finishes his sermon with an invitation to believe Jesus.
Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. (Acts 13:38–39, ESV)
From the throne of abundant blessing and life we receive forever forgiveness of sins in Jesus. Preaching to Jews, those who knew God’s law, Paul tells them that freedom from guilt, death, and from impossible works is possible in Jesus. They couldn’t defeat Jesus (per Psalm 2). They couldn’t be satisfied without Jesus (per Isaiah 55). They couldn’t have life apart from Jesus (per Psalm 16). They couldn’t escape condemnation without Jesus. But forgiveness and fellowship with God is what the Trinity had been planning all along! The resurrection made it all possible.
God was excited about Easter. He celebrated. He showed off His Son. He corroborated His righteousness and His mercy. He poured out his blessing. He secured eternal life for His people. The Trinity rejoiced as the Father fulfilled His promises, as the Spirit raised the Son, and as the Son took the throne in stage one of His triumph.
For us who believe, who have gathered to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, let us: