On the Acts of the Apostles

All of the preaching done in the first seven chapters is addressed to those who know their Jewish history; even though not everyone they spoke to was Jewish (Acts 2 lists many countries they were from--certainly some were dispersed Jews, but not all). Each sermon uses prophecies from the Old Testament. The apostles show that Jesus was indeed the fulfillment of these prophecies. Yet, the Jews killed Him. The apostles' boldness endangered them, but they would not be turned aside. We, as twenty-first century believers, don't fully understand what the claims of Christ as the Son of David, Mediator, and Messiah, meant to those hearing.

Peter, the usual spokesman, uses a pattern in which he starts with Israel's history or a prophecy, then shows that Christ fulfilled it. I will list some of the other prophecies and evidences, not mentioned in Acts, that the listeners would have known and understood.

The Son of David was the only legitimate ruler according to God's promise. 2 Samuel 7:4-16, 22:51; Isaiah 9:7, 11:10; Ezekiel 37:24, 34:22-24; Micah 5:2, 4; Jeremiah 23:5-6, 30:9; and Matthew 22:41-42. When the people requested a king, God gave them what they were looking for--Saul. David became king after him and succeeded where Saul failed. David was a picture of God's perfect King. The Son of David would do in full what David began. The Messiah would establish the authority of God's perfection.

The Messiah was thought of as a political and military leader. This was partially the basis for the Apostle's carnal views of the Kingdom (see John 1:49, and Acts 1:6). The thought of a military deliverer was so entrenched that even the Roman government felt threatened by those descended from David (Eusebius: History III 12.1 and 32.3-4). Thus, one responsibility of the early church was to point people back to Christ and His heavenly, not earthly, kingdom.

Many Jews had already lost hope of the Messiah ever coming (Midrash Rabbah: Lamentations 2:4). Some evidence of Jesus being the Messiah, the Son of David, was that His genealogy was divided into three sets of fourteen. Fourteen is the gematria (which are numerical values associated with biblical interpretation) of David's name in Hebrew. This, although we might not count it as evidence, would have been important, and was more evidence to them that Christ was the Son of David.

The Son of David was not only a great King, but was also to restore true representation of God in authority and worship (see Hosea 3:4-5 and Amos 9:11). This is what David did, in part, when he moved the tabernacle to Jerusalem and re-established worship according to God's plan. The Temple, built by Solomon, was physically destroyed in the early sixth century B.C., although the worship was corrupted long before.

The Son of David, the "seed" promised, was to be the mediator, the one who fixed all problems made by the fall (hence, "He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High," a place of mediation--see Hebrews 1:3). You can trace the promise of a redeeming seed from Adam, to Abraham, to David. In Genesis 3:15, when God is cursing the serpent, He says, "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed, He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." In Genesis 12:3, God is speaking to Abraham:"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." And to David God says, "your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever." 2 Samuel 7:4-16, also Isaiah 11:10 and Ezekiel 37:24.

These were some of the considerations that would have been in the forefront of the Jewish mind, but are foreign to our minds. Keep these in mind as you read through Peter's sermons.

some of this information came from Exploring Bible Times by Dr. James Martin