The Promise Is for You

A fisherman from Galilee stands up in front of thousands of people from all over the world. Seven weeks ago he was hiding behind locked doors. Now he is about to tell them about a promise, and he is not afraid.

It is the Jewish festival of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover, and Jerusalem is packed with pilgrims from all over the Roman world: Parthians, Medes, Egyptians, Romans, Cretans and Arabs. That morning, the Holy Spirit has come on Jesus' followers with a sound like a rushing wind and tongues like fire, and they have begun praising God in languages they never learned. A crowd gathers, amazed and confused. Some mock them, saying they are drunk. So Peter stands up with the eleven and raises his voice. It is only nine in the morning, he says. These people are not drunk. This is what the prophet Joel said would happen.

Then Peter tells them about Jesus: the miracles he did, how he was handed over and crucified, and how God raised him from the dead. And he turns to David. “Brothers, I may tell you freely of the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” Everyone in the crowd knew where David's tomb was in Jerusalem. David's body never rose. So when David wrote in a psalm, you will not leave my soul in the grave, nor let your Holy One see decay, he could not have been speaking about himself.

“Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ.” God had promised David a descendant on his throne for ever. Peter says: that descendant is Jesus. “This Jesus God raised up, of which we all are witnesses.” And now, exalted to the right hand of God, Jesus has poured out the Holy Spirit, which is what you are seeing and hearing. Peter even quotes Psalm one hundred and ten. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand. David did not go up to heaven. Jesus did. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

The words hit the crowd like a blow. Luke says they were cut to the heart. They cry out to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter answers, “Repent, and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.” The promise to David was not just for kings. It was for them. Luke tells us that about three thousand people were baptised that day.

Peter's remark that David's tomb was still there was literally true. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing later in the first century, tells how the high priest John Hyrcanus, besieged in Jerusalem, opened one chamber of David's tomb and took out three thousand talents of silver, and how King Herod later entered it too. In Peter's day, everyone in Jerusalem knew where David lay.

The promise is for you. You can read it in Acts chapter two, verses twenty-nine to thirty-nine. God had sworn to David that a son of his would sit on his throne. At Christmas, Christians celebrate the birth of that son in David's town. At Pentecost, Peter announced that the promise had come true, and that its doors were open to everyone, near and far. So here is a question to carry with you. Peter said the promise is for you and your children and all who are far off. Who could you share that promise with this Christmas?