Why Couldn't The Grave Hold Him?
Easter • Sermon • Submitted
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· 1,392 viewsIt was perhaps the plan of the evil one to put Jesus to death, hoping to stop his miraculous ministry. That was certainly the plan of the religious leaders as they plotted to arrest, try, and have executed this Jesus of Nazareth. But it was also God's eternal plan that the Messiah would be a suffering servant. Peter's sermon at Pentecost holds these truths in beautiful tension. Yes, his death was our fault, yes, his death was God's plan, but either way, the Grave couldn't hold Jesus because he is the Divine Lord of All.
Notes
Transcript
You may be familiar with the Scottish Poet, Robert Burns, perhaps mostly for his well-known poem, To A Mouse which imagines a monologue of a plowman speaking to a mouse whose home in the field had just been brought to shreds by the ploughstaff. The poem serves as an 18th century parable of the sometimes-vain pursuit of plans and foresight, and the dread of looking into the unknown future, as the most well-known verse of the poem reads,
But mousie, you are not alone
in proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes of mice and men,
go oft’ awry,
And leave us naught but grief and pain
for promised joy.
Foiled plans are the enemy of taking joy in the future, aren’t they? A bad experience with plans gone wrong can make you halt for a time before making new plans. How many of us had plans that were foiled in the past year? Perhaps this year more than ever! And Burn’s words, the best-laid plans of mice and men go oft awry, hold true.
Well, my friends, the resurrection of Christ is a testimony of counteractive foiled plans. To put it as eloquently as I can, there was a plan to foil the plan, but then the plan to foil the plan was foiled itself. Clear?
What I mean is this: there was a plot and plan to be rid of Jesus. To be rid of his ministry, his miraculous teaching, his following, his influence. There was a plan to “cancel” him in the ultimate sense. Now, perhaps this plan on the part of mankind was in cohorts with the evil one, the devil, who despises the seed of righteousness and would never allow its prospering if it were up to Him.
Nevertheless, there were counteracting plans at play. There was the Divine plan of redemption through the messiah, and there was the human plan to put a stop to the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Yet perhaps in the most astounding and ironic circumstance in all of history, these two opposing plans converged at the central point, their goals were differing, yet their apex was indentical.
You see, both the human plan to be rid of Jesus and the Divine plan of redemption involved and were leading to the death of Jesus Christ.
Consider these scriptures,
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.”
Then the chief priests and the elders of the people gathered in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and plotted together in order to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him.
And there we have it, the Divine and Human plans converging. The Jewish leaders intention was to be rid of Jesus one and for all, but God’s intention was to enact the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate atonement for sin, to make His sinless Son into the Spotless Lamb.
In our passage today in Acts, Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost, that is, 50 days after Passover. So we can say, 50 days after Jesus’ death. Now, the crowd had seen an unbelievable miracle take place. People had gathered from all around, from many nations, nations which spoke different languages. Yet the people gathered were hearing the wonders of God proclaimed in their own languages. It was so profound that they accused the people of being drunk at 9:00 in the morning!
But Peter stood up, and in the first great sermon of the Christian Church, as it were, peter proclaimed that this was the Word of God coming to life in front of their very eyes. And while he had a captive audience, he proclaimed to them this very topic that we have been speaking of - the death of Christ as the convergence of human and divine will, yet ultimately the Divine will was the supreme and victorious one.
He proclaims Jesus as the promised, attested, proven, and resurrected Messiah and the Lord of Glory. The question of the sermon, really, was do you align with God’s view of Christ? You see, at the heart of the New Covenant is the centrality and supremacy of Christ. Peter’s listeners were Jewish, they were religious, they were moral, they were learned in the scriptures - but the question was, do they take Jesus for who God said he was?
The question is the same for us, do we take Jesus for who God says he is? You cannot have God without Jesus, you cannot get to the Father except through the Son. You must believe God’s testimony about the Messiah, and that is what Peter is giving here.
The main feature of Peter’s proof is the resurrection - yes, he was killed, yes, he died, but the grave couldn’t hold him! That is a wonderful proposition and the hope of humanity on this earth! The grave couldn’t hold Jesus Christ, and because the grave couldn’t hold Jesus, then for those of us who are in Christ, it won’t be able to hold us either.
My question for this text today, though, is why couldn’t the grave hold him?
I see four reasons in this text, perhaps there are more or less, but four I want to highlight.
Why couldn’t the Grave Hold Jesus?
Why couldn’t the Grave Hold Jesus?
1. His Death was According to Divine Plan - 22-24
1. His Death was According to Divine Plan - 22-24
Vs. 22 - A man attested to you by God - Peter is saying that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the one that so many of his own people rejected, was, in his earthly life and ministry, attested to by God Almighty as being sent through Him. That God “attested” Jesus means that he put him on display for all to see. All the miracles, the mighty works, the healings, the feeding, the miraculous teaching, everything was done according to God’s will that his power would be displayed.
It was as if God was saying, “I am at work in your midst: exhibit A, Jesus of Nazareth.” This is important if you remember that at least some of the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day were accusing Him of doing his works by the power of Satan. Isn’t it just like our human nature to attempt to ascribe the works of God to some other source, in order to ignore or avoid the confrontation of admitting, God is working? God is doing something?
And he was doing something.
Vs. 23 - here we have given in tension the two truths that are by human logic and reason seem irreconcilable, yet Peter puts them forth as a sign of God’s work in the life of Jesus. God, by definite plan and foreknowledge, delivered Jesus up to be killed - crucified. It was part of the plan. Peter repeats the idea in another Sermon in Acts 3.
and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.
Yet he states a few verses later.
But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
So the audience was guilty of the blood of Jesus, but God brought it about also? And this is where human plans and Divine plans are seen so plainly to converge. Isn’t it maybe the greatest irony of history, that while the Jewish leaders were planning and plotting to Kill Jesus Christ, they were unwittingly planning to fulfill the divine will of God in doing so? Their intention in the killing was to suppress and to be rid of Jesus, but God’s intention was to attest to Jesus, to put Him on display, that the mighty works of God would be made manifest.
Just as in the story of Joseph in Genesis, where his brothers hated him and sought to be rid of him, yet his slavery and capture led to the rescue of his entire family.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
Truly, the Jewish leaders and the Roman government were actually guilty of the blood of Jesus - as are all who reject God’s testimony of Him, but the death of Christ was part of the Divine plan. The plan to suppress him was foiled, while the ultimate plan to exult him was executed, as evidenced in the next verse.
Vs. 24 - God raised Him up, because it was not possible for him to be held by the pangs of death. We can bring this down, for just a moment, to the level of providence and say this - if God’s intention was to allow and bring about the most wicked and evil thing imaginable, the false trial and murder of his own innocent son, yet doing it for ultimate good, how much more can he take and does he intend the evils in our present age to bring about greater glory, even in ways that we cannot comprehend?
So that is the first reason why the grave could not hold him, because this was all according to Divine plan. Yet, the divine plan clearly was not just that he would die.
2. His Resurrection was Predicted in Divine Scripture - 25-32
2. His Resurrection was Predicted in Divine Scripture - 25-32
After saying, “it was not possible that he would be held by the pangs of death,” Peter cites a reference that his audience would have been very familiar with - the Psalms of David.
In verses 25-28, Peter quotes from Psalm 16. A psalm that, at its initial reading, is simply David speaking about his own human experience. Yet, there was a prophetic element to David’s words as he spoke of the Lord not “abandoning his soul to the grave” and not letting “his holy one see corruption.”
The question then becomes, what is David referring to? Did David believe that his body wouldn’t lie in the grave long enough to rot and decompose? Did David believe his body would not be abandoned to the grave? And this is where the greater meaning comes in.
Peter says, in verse 29, I paraphrase, “King David died, and they buried him, and we still have his tomb. If you went and opened his tomb, his bones would be there, his flesh was corrupted.”
Peter goes on to explain that David was speaking prophetically about another one, yes, one from David’s line, one who would also be a king, one who would die, but whose flesh would not see corruption, one who would not be abandoned to the realm of the dead. David was speaking about the resurrection of the Divine King, the Messiah.
And this is not the only place that was foretold, consider Isaiah 53
Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Here, in Isaiah’s great prophecy of the Suffering Servant, we have this theme of both the death of Jesus at the will of God, but also this promise that “after his soul has made an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.”
How can one prolong his days after suffering death? By miraculous resurrection, that is how.
Verse 32 - Peter says, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.” Peter and the other apostles were eyewitnesses of the Resurrection of Christ. And they weren’t the only ones. Paul records in 1 Corinthians 15 that the fact of Jesus’ resurrection was attested to by over 500 people at one time.
So we have hundreds of resurrection eyewitnesses. We have written accounts by eyewitnesses. Peter and the others were eyewitnesses of that resurrection. The scripture of the New Testament is a witness to the fact. But also, those of us who live and serve Christ now are witnesses of that Resurrection. The Christian Church exists to proclaim the glories of the Gospel of Christ, and his Death and miraculous resurrection are the chief and pinnacle truths of that message. In that vein, I stand before you today to declare that Christ is alive.
Yet, Christ did not rise up and go on with his earthly ministry, though some may have expected that. We find in scripture, yes, even in our text today, that he was exalted even beyond the point of resurrection.
3. His Ascension was a Display of Divine Exaltation - 33-35
3. His Ascension was a Display of Divine Exaltation - 33-35
Verse 33 - Peter says that Jesus is now “exalted at the right hand of God.”
Just a week earlier, Peter and the other Apostles had seen Jesus Christ gloriously ascend to Heaven as recorded in Acts 1. There they received the great commission where Jesus ordained his followers to be witnesses to Him in all the earth, and now Peter is doing just that, as he recounts the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ on high.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is not original with me, but I say to you, that no one in history has ever started so high, only to be brought so low, and then again to be exalted to such position as Jesus Christ. From eternal existence with the Father and The Spirit, to humbling himself to the position of a lowly servant, even humbled to death and burial, to glorious resurrection and ascension where he sits at the right hand of the Father as Lord of All.
Peter quotes here from Psalm 110, which is actually the psalm that is most frequently quoted or referenced in the New Testament,
The Lord, Yahweh, said to my Lord, Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
David was, again, not referring to Himself. For as Peter says, David did not ascend to heaven to sit at God’s right hand - only one has done that, and only one who ever lived on this earth has ascended in victory, and will be praised and exclaimed one day by every tongue as Lord to the Glory of God.
And what Did Jesus do because of this? Peter proclaimed that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a confirmation of the Divine exaltation. As Jesus himself predicted:
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
So here, in Acts 2, we see the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit on display. The Father who ordained this all to take place, the Son who miraculously fulfilled the will of God, and the Holy Spirit poured out on all who believe to empower them to be witnesses of the Gospel.
4. All of it was Work of Divine Redemption - 36
4. All of it was Work of Divine Redemption - 36
Peter’s conclusion in Verse 36 is addressed to the house of Israel. After all, they were in Jerusalem on a prominent Jewish holiday. His audience in that day was nearly entirely ethnic Jews. Yet his conclusion reaches further than just the Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
The fact that Jesus is both Lord and Christ speaks to his divinity, and his work of redemption.
That he is Lord, to the Jewish ear, meant more than he was a leader or a ruler. Just as David said in Psalm 110, the Yahweh said to David’s Lord, that is, someone greater than David. Now, David was King of God’s people. Who could be greater than Him, humanly speaking? Only the true King, the true ruler of God’s people, Jesus the Lord was God in human flesh.
That he is Christ, as we read in English, refers to the Jewish title of Messiah. One who would be a redeemer and savior of his people. The Messiah was to be the anointed of God. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and he did come to redeem them. Yet, he didn’t redeem them from what they had hoped. The vision of the Messiah was an earthly, kingdom vision, where the Messiah would come and save and redeem from political takeover. After all, Israel at this time was under the puppet rulership of the Roman empire.
Yet, Jesus, as the Messiah, did not come and remove those political overlords - rather he came to save them, yes, but from something much greater.
What did the Angel tell Joseph about the baby that was in Mary’s womb?
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
You see, Jesus, savior, messiah, came not to initially deliver his people, and us as well, from our earthly troubles. He came to deliver us from sin. As Isaiah prophesied, by his death he made an offering for our guilt. Guilt of what, and guilt before whom? Guilt of sin, and guilt before God himself.
The grave could not hold Jesus because this entire act, his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension and exaltation, was the Divine plan of God!
Three Takeaways
Three Takeaways
Now, in this Sermon, Peter is really defending the messiahship of Jesus Christ before the Jewish people at the holiday of Pentecost. He was proclaiming to many who had rejected Christ that this Christ was actually the Lord of all, and that his resurrection and exaltation was ultimate proof of that.
God has put Jesus Christ on display to reveal His divine power. Do you see Him?
God has put Jesus Christ on display to reveal His divine power. Do you see Him?
That is, do you agree with God’s testimony about himself? Do you see the work of Jesus Christ, the death of Jesus Christ, the Burial and resurrection of Christ, the exaltation of Christ, and say, “Yes, Lord! I see your revelation! I see the God of the universe on display!” Or do you simply see this as a religious story to be regarded as one of man’s inventions? I say to you, you do not get to God without Jesus.
Because of the Resurrection of Christ, we have assurance that God can and will raise us up as well.
Because of the Resurrection of Christ, we have assurance that God can and will raise us up as well.
Jesus is called “the firstborn of many brethren.” That is, his work of Divine redemption was the initial and great act that would lead to the redemption and resurrection of many others. If you are in Christ, you are raised with Him spiritually, and you, too, will be raised physically to live forever.
A Divine harvest is taking place, are you part of it?
A Divine harvest is taking place, are you part of it?
Interestingly, Jewish Pentecost was really intended as a celebration of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. After Peter’s sermon, Acts records that around 3,000 people listening both received the word and testified to their faith in baptism. It is recorded as 3,000 souls. So on the celebration of harvest, there was a harvest of 3,000 souls into the Kingdom of God. And may I tell you, this harvest is still taking place? A harvest of souls for God’s Kingdom is happening all across the globe. Are you part of that harvest?
foremost, are you part of the harvest in that you are spreading the seed of the Gospel?
second, has the good news of Christ been planted in your life, in your soul? And if so, do you believe? Has that seed taken root?
If you see the work of Christ, I pray dear one, call upon him! Jesus is both Lord and Messiah! He is Redeemer and King! He will save you from your sin and the wrath of God, and his resurrection is the victorious proof that he has the power to do so.
The grave could not hold Jesus because He is the Divine Lord and Messiah. Do you take Him for who He is?
The grave could not hold Jesus because He is the Divine Lord and Messiah. Do you take Him for who He is?