Beyond the Pulpit
Beyond the Pulpit: Exploring the life and ministry of Walnut Creek Church Downtown. The mission of Walnut Creek Church is to glorify God by making authentic disciples of Jesus Christ who love and worship Him in all they do. Join us as we dive deep in to the word of God and provide updates about life in the church.
Beyond the Pulpit
#39: How Peter Used the Old Testament to Proclaim Christ's Victory
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Peter's first sermon after Pentecost demonstrates the power of Scripture in proclaiming Christ, as he uses Old Testament passages to prove Jesus is the promised Messiah.
• Peter quotes Psalm 16 to show David prophesied Christ's resurrection a thousand years earlier
• David couldn't have been speaking about himself since his tomb and remains were still present
• Jesus could not be held by death because Scripture had foretold his resurrection
• Psalm 110 (the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament) predicted Christ's ascension and exaltation
• The apostles consistently grounded their understanding of Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures
• Experience matters but isn't the foundation—Scripture provides the authoritative basis for faith
• The Holy Spirit transformed Peter from one who denied Christ to a bold proclaimer
• We need both Old and New Testaments to fully understand God's revelation
• Like Peter, we should anchor our hope in the Scriptures, "as to a lamp shining in a dark place"
Join us Wednesday night as our fall ministries kick off! Kids Club, Community Groups, and Student Ministry all begin this week. Also mark your calendars for Movie in the Village on September 20th—a perfect opportunity to invite friends and neighbors for a no-pressure evening of fun.
Church Updates and Fall Ministry Kickoff
Speaker 2Welcome to Beyond the Pulpit, exploring the life and ministry of Walnut Creek Church. Downtown. Walnut Creek Church exists to glorify God by making authentic disciples of Jesus Christ who love and worship Him in all they do, well, all right welcome to Beyond the Pulpit.
Speaker 2My name is Derek Wadley and I'm joined by Lou Cookie, hey everyone and Dan Root. Good morning everyone. And today is September 9th and tomorrow is Wednesday, September 10th, which is a big day in the life of Walnut Creek downtown. A lot of our fall ministries kick off tomorrow. We have our Wednesday night community groups that happen at the same time as Kids Club. I looked this morning. We had something like 175 kids signed up to go through Kids Club, which is awesome. That's 175 young souls who need the gospel, who need to be built up and encouraged, so it's really a wonderful thing. And then we have student ministry for middle school and high school students kicking off today. I have no idea how many kids are involved in that because there's no sign up.
Speaker 1There's no sign up. There's no sign up. There's no sign up. There's no sign up.
Speaker 3Come as you are. If you have a middle schooler, high schooler bring them tonight.
Speaker 2Not signed up and it's going to be great. Just talking with Cody Smith over the last few weeks, him and his team have put in a lot of work to get ready for the year. I think it's going to be great. I think they're going through the parables this year, which is going to be awesome.
Peter's Sermon and Scripture's Pattern
Speaker 2Another thing that's coming up in the life of the church on September 20th we have a movie in the village. You can check out our website for more information on that. You can get tickets on there. We would encourage you to think about this as an opportunity to invite your friends and your neighbors, your coworkers, families that you know, to come down to the church. It's just a no-pressure environment to come and enjoy how to train your dragon, eat your body weight in hot dogs and popcorn and yeah. So that's going to be. It's going to be a good time. So that's September 20th. Get your tickets on our website now. September 20th Get your tickets on our website now.
Speaker 2Well, this week we started a new series in the book of Acts, specifically Acts chapter two. We're going to spend the next. We spent one week there. We have three more weeks going in it looking at how the church began, what shaped it and formed it and what lessons we can draw from it for today and this week we looked at a little bit of Peter's sermon and kind of how the bold proclamation of the scriptures really led to 3,000 repenting and joining their numbers. But something that we didn't get to spend a lot of time on is the actual content of Peter's preaching and how he preached from the Old Testament, and so we thought we'd take a few minutes today and talk about why that matters. Look at what he preached from the Old Testament, and so we thought that we'd take a few minutes today and talk about why that matters. Look at what he preached and why it matters.
Speaker 3Peter, he gives the first spirit-filled gospel presentation after the resurrection of Christ. And so there's something about this sermon that he gives this gospel proclamation that I think is highly instructive for us, and it becomes the pattern for preaching in the book of Acts and throughout the New Testament. And I think it is the pattern of preaching, should be the pattern of preaching today. And what Peter does, which I think is just, it's just fascinating, is that he preaches that he and the other apostles and the other followers of Christ at that time were eyewitnesses, that we are eyewitnesses of the resurrected Jesus. But that's not all that he preached. He preached the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ, that all of the Old Testament, all that had happened in the Old Testament, was pointing ahead, looking ahead to the coming of Christ.
Speaker 3And so he's going to quote Psalm 16 in his sermon. He's going to quote Psalm 16, and then he's going to quote Psalm 110, verse 1, which Psalm 110 is the most quoted Psalm in the New Testament, that Jesus keeps going back to it. The writers of the New Testament keep going back to Psalm 110. And so we thought it could be helpful just to dive into this Psalm, and so that's what we're going to do and look at how Peter uses it. Acts 2.24,. Peter says God raised him up, ending the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by death. One of the all-time great verses phrases in the Bible death cannot hold, Jesus, you got to preach it first.
Speaker 2That's right. Let's preach it first, that's right.
Speaker 3Yeah, back in the day, if they made t-shirts, that's the line that would be on the t-shirts.
Speaker 2Death can't hold them. We just made new t-shirts. Maybe we should have made that one Next year, next year.
Speaker 3Death couldn't hold them, and it's a fantastic reality about who Jesus is. Now, if you ask Peter, if you again call time out, peter, interrupt the sermon. Peter, I have a question. I need to understand why. Why is it that Jesus could not be held by death? Why and I think Peter could have given another sermon explaining why death could not hold him?
Speaker 3But he actually answers that question in verse 25. And it's not necessarily what you would anticipate. In verse 25, he says for okay, so because death couldn't hold them because, or for David says of him. So the connection he makes is that death could not hold Jesus because of what David said. So he's going to anchor his understanding of why Jesus could not be held by death in Psalm chapter 16. That's pretty awesome. It's incredible and this is what the apostles preached. They preached that, like in 1 Corinthians 15, he says I passed on to you what is most important that Christ died according to the scriptures. That the Old Testament predicted the death of Christ, that he was buried and he was raised according to the scriptures. That the Old Testament predicted the death of Christ, that he was buried and he was raised according to the scriptures that the scriptures, the Old Testament, moses, david, the prophets.
Speaker 3They pointed to not only the coming of the Messiah, but the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. So where do we see that in Psalm 16? Where do we see this? Well, this is what Peter says in verse 25. For David says of him I saw the Lord ever before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope. Flesh will rest in hope because you will not abandon me in Hades or the grave, or allow your holy one to see decay. You have revealed the paths of life to me. You will find me with gladness or fill me, sorry. You will fill me with gladness in your presence. Brothers and sisters, this is verse 29. I am. I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David. He is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. So what is he saying? Any idea? What is he saying in that, in verse 29? David's really dead.
Speaker 2David is really dead.
Speaker 3Very dead. His body has decayed, he has been left in Hades. He gone, he gone. So David writes a thousand years before Jesus, looking ahead to the Messiah, and he says you're not going to leave me in Hades, you're not going to let my body see decay. And Peter says, when David wrote, that he wasn't talking about himself, because we have David's bones.
Speaker 1No, david ain't alive.
Speaker 2David is not alive.
Speaker 3He is in the grave. So who is David writing about? Then? He says brothers and sisters, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David. He is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. About the patriarch David he is both dead and buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne. From is that 2 Chronicles or 2 Samuel, chapter seven, where God promises David that one of your physical descendants will sit on the throne?
Speaker 2forever and ever.
David's Prophecy of Christ's Resurrection
Speaker 3Since he was a prophet. Did you know David was a prophet? Peter says David was a prophet. He's one of the prophets. He knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne, seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection. Peter says David was speaking of the resurrection Wow, the resurrection of the Messiah. Now, where do we get that? He was not abandoned in Hades and his flesh did not experience decay. Wow, wow. That's incredible. It's incredible he was not abandoned to Hades, that Jesus did not stay in the grave and his flesh did not see decay. He rose from the dead. Verse 32,. God has raised this Jesus. We are all witnesses of this, and so Peter's arguing with it. Not only have we seen him with our physical eyes, the resurrected Christ, we have seen him in the scriptures. We see him here in the scriptures, which is a powerful principle for understanding the basis of our hope in Christ. How do we relate to Christ now?
Speaker 1It's powerful, yeah it is, yeah, it's super remarkable. Remarkable to think about.
Speaker 1Okay, david, he's grounding his argument in things that have been said, something that was said a thousand years ago In God's word, through King David, who oftentimes we think of just simply as a king and not as a prophet, but, as Peter says, david is a prophet, not just a king, and he was made a promise by God, a covenant that would not be broken, that he would have won His throne, would reign and go on forever and ever, but David's dead.
Speaker 1So who's the one who's going to sit on the throne forever and ever? And Peter says, well, it's Jesus, the one who was raised from the dead. And just how the Old Testament, over and over again, points to the coming, the reality of the Messiah and the, the writers in the new Testament, peter, paul, the apostles they constantly go back to the old Testament to ground Jesus's death, burial and resurrection there, like it's not, not something that is made up, it's like, no, this is something that was always talked about, that you have. You can go back into the, into your sacred scriptures, like speaking to the Jewish people, and this is what God has promised and what he prophesied, which is pretty remarkable when you start seeing these connections, because I don't think when you read Psalm 16, that's what you're thinking about, necessarily, but what Peter does is he helps us understand. That's actually what is going on.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's just even a lot of thing about Jesus on on the Emmaus road, like after he rose, like his, his appeal to those disciples were like let's look at the scriptures and how they all point to me, not like, hey, I'm standing here with holes in my hand. I'm like I'll very much alive, but he's like let's look at the scriptures and see how they all pointed towards me. That's right, let's look at the scriptures and see how they all pointed towards me.
Speaker 3That's right, it's just an incredible thing, because one of the great realities of Christianity is that the church started with the eyewitnesses. But the overwhelming majority, the overwhelming majority of Christians, the early church, they did not see Christ alive from the dead.
Speaker 3They didn't see the resurrected Christ yet they believed, they believed. And Peter understood this, like he says in 1 Peter 1, though you've not seen him, you love him. Though you've not seen him, you love him. And so what is the basis then of our faith in the death burial, resurrection, ascension of Jesus, the promise of his return? Well, it's actually the scriptures. This is the way that we know God primarily. It's not that our experiences don't matter, it's just that our experience as followers of Christ or our experiences as human beings, that's not the basis for understanding who Jesus is. And, like you said, when Jesus rose from the dead, he wanted to anchor their understanding of who he is in the scriptures, in the Old Testament scriptures. And Peter goes on here in verse 33, to say not only was the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus promised by David, so was his ascension.
Speaker 3And we're witnesses of his ascension too. He says in verse 33, therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear. So the coming of the Spirit, with the sound of the rushing wind from heaven and the tongues of fire and the speaking in tongues. He says this is what you're seeing. Verse 34, for I love this, for it was not David who ascended into the heavens. We know that because he's dead. He's dead.
Speaker 2Remember the bones.
Ascension Foretold in Psalm 110
Speaker 3Yeah, remember the bones, for it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says. The Lord declared to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. See, david, in Psalm 110, verse one, was actually speaking of the ascension of Jesus into the heavens, where Jesus went into heaven victorious over sin, death, satan, and sat down at the right hand of the father where he rules and reigns over all things. And that was promised by David. Wow, I just think it's awesome. So, peter, where did Peter get this insight? He spent three years with Jesus, no doubt After the resurrection of Jesus. Jesus taught his followers these truths, he opened up their minds to understand how the Old Testament pointed to him, and then he's filled with God's Holy Spirit, and this is what flows out of him. It's beautiful, it's incredible.
Speaker 1Yeah, in fact. In verse 36, therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, he adds that he doesn't just say let God no with certainty and it's like, why do you have certainty?
Speaker 1Because this is what the scriptures have taught and and you've missed it, we missed it. That's what he's like saying, but like we know now with clarity that Jesus has made it clear. I mean to your point, derek, like when you're saying the road of Damascus, it was clear that Jesus, he went back to the scripture showing them. Okay, this is how the scriptures actually point to me. And so Peter's saying, fellow Jews, like we have certainty that Jesus is the Lord, he is the Messiah that we've been waiting for, that Daniel talked about, that would fulfill the promise made to you know, king David. Like that Isaiah spoke of the suffering servant, all these passages that point to this Messiah figure, it is fulfilled in Christ. And so what a what a wild statement, which is why they say they were pierced to the heart.
Speaker 1Whoa, I mean could you imagine like being them and you realize that, oh, you're like the, the messiah whom, like, they spent like that was like what their life in one sense, was around, waiting and anticipating the messiah, and then to realize, oh, shoot, wait, we killed him, we killed him, but then. But then the trippy thing of like realizing that was actually God's plan, at the same time, like how, what a conundrum. Like it's weird to think about that now, like, okay, human responsibility, yeah, and God's sovereignty, like back to human responsibility.
Speaker 2You're like right there and then, and you're like wait, I don't physically there. I wasn't chanting free Barabbas crucified Jesus, though I probably would have been.
Speaker 3But it's like it's my sin.
Speaker 2That required like, so it's like we're still part of that. And so it ought to pierce our heart.
Speaker 3Yeah, it reminds me of the story of Joseph with his brothers. You know how his brothers did such a grave evil to. Joseph, you know, and then all that transpires. We can't go through that. We're going to go through that we're going through it. We're going to go through that here. In a few weeks we're going to go through the rest of Genesis, but how?
Speaker 2It'll be like months before we get to Joseph. Okay, okay okay.
Speaker 1Before Joseph in a few months.
Speaker 2We'll start down that road.
Speaker 3I stand corrected, but eventually we will start Genesis in a few weeks, yeah, yeah, yeah, but how they've run out from Israel to Egypt in order to get food, and now they're standing in front of their brother and if they don't get food, they're going to die. And what happens is that the person that they had so horribly mistreated is now the one who's giving them life. I'm like, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, it's just, it's crazy.
Speaker 1Well, and forgive me if you, I can't remember if you said this already, but to Peter's just it's crazy. Well, and forgive me if you, I can't remember if you said this already, but you know, to Peter's point like, or it's interesting here, his point isn't we saw Jesus. That wasn't like what he grounded, everything in which was valid.
Speaker 3He talks about it, he does Paul talks about it.
Speaker 1Paul talks extensively about his, his Rota Damascus experience, which is important. But but both Paul and Peter and the others, uh, apostles and whatnot, they just keep going back to. This is what the scriptures have taught. You know, like when I I finished Acts this morning and um, and I started this summer reading through and when is, you know, taken into custody. And he, in Acts 28,. Where's that? Oh, it says that.
Speaker 1So he was speaking to some Jews. He says from dawn to dusk he expounded and testified about the kingdom of God and he tried to persuade them about Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets. You know he went back to the scriptures. Or in Acts 26, he says I stand and testify to both small and great. This is when he's before King Agrippa, saying nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would take place the Messiah must suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles. He's like no, this is what Moses said would happen. This is what the law and the prophets said would happen.
Speaker 2He's not anchoring his whole argument in like. Well, how many stonings have I survived? How many days at sea?
Speaker 1have? I survived that stuff matters.
Speaker 2It really does, but we lose the plot when experience trumps the scriptures. That's where so many people in the deconstruction movement, they go down that road where their experience doesn't line up with what they wanted to. That's where, like cults, like Mormonism, like their primary sign of do you know, god is a burning in the bosom, but it's not anchored in the scriptures.
Speaker 3It's anchored in experience. And then they feed everyone. They're talking to Taco Bell, that's right. And then they feed everyone. They're talking to Taco Bell, that's right.
Speaker 2And then you feel a burning.
Speaker 3Yeah yeah, yeah, that's how you know God's speaking to you. I've felt that burning before.
Speaker 1It's been quite a few years, it's been a while, but I've felt that burning. That's good, but I think that is an important point. It's like we want to look at what the scriptures teach and make sure that our hope is anchored in that truth, not just in our experiences. Our experiences do have a role to play, but they're not the thing, because our experiences can be wrong.
Holy Spirit's Transforming Power
Speaker 3They're not the foundation. That's a good way to put it. They're not the foundation.
Speaker 1The church was founded. It's the pillar and foundation of truth. That's what it sits on is the truth.
Speaker 3Amen, amen, you know. Second, peter I was thinking about, you know, last week I was studying Acts 2. Peter stands up and he preaches. And I was just thinking about how Peter might have been the most surprising apostle to get up and preach. Like, if you were to pick, if you were to watch everything unfold, I would not have picked Peter to be the one who would get up and preach At Pentecost. At Pentecost and the reason is, you know, pentecost is 50 days after the Passover and the night before Jesus dies Peter proclaims his loyalty. His loyalty, he kind of throws his fellow apostles under the bus. He's like okay, even if all these guys betray you, I'm never going to do that.
Speaker 2And John subtly gets them back a few times throughout the gospel. But even these guys, they deny you.
Speaker 3I'll never deny you. And John subtly gets him back a few times throughout his gospel. But even these guys, they deny you, I'll never deny you. And then the moment of truth comes, where he's got to stand with Christ and he pulls out a sword, cuts off Malchus's ear, and then you're like, jesus heals him, and then Peter, or Jesus rebukes Peter again, and then he denies the Lord three times. Jesus rebukes Peter again, and then he denies the Lord three times, and the third time. In Luke's gospel it says that Peter, after he denied the Lord for the third time, Luke adds that then Jesus turns.
Speaker 3They lock eyes, they see each other, and obviously we don't know what Jesus actually looked like, but he probably was, he wasn't looking.
Speaker 3He probably wasn't looking good at that point, because it says that they had been hitting him, beating him, punching him, slapping him, spitting on him, and you know he's being horribly mistreated and just even the contrast, like the Sanhedrin and the police. They have weapons, they're going at him. He's like way outnumbered and Jesus is holding firm to his confession. And then Peter he is challenged by a little girl, and nothing against little girls. He's challenged by a little girl and he denies Christ in the presence of a servant girl, and the word that's used there is a little girl.
Speaker 2Young adolescent girl. There is a significant difference. There's a difference, and so you have this image.
Scripture: Our Foundation Beyond Experience
Speaker 3And then he denies the Lord three times and he runs away and he's weeping. And but 50 days later he gets up and he proclaims Christ, professes Christ by the, by the or to thousands of people with courage and clarity and boldness. And I think one of the lessons we're supposed to learn is just that, you know, the Holy Spirit makes all the difference in the Christian life. And Peter it's not that Peter was flawless from that day on it just it just shows the difference that God's spirit makes. And then, towards the end of his life, he writes 2 Peter and I was thinking about what he says here. And he says for we did.
Speaker 3In verse 16, chapter 1, he says for we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. That's awesome, for he received honor and glory from the Father when the voice came to him from the majestic glory saying this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain. And then so they have this incredible experience. We're eyewitnesses of his majesty, but not everyone has that experience.
Speaker 3Not everyone has that experience, only a few.
Speaker 3So in verse 19, he says we also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your heart and your hearts. So he says, like we had, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty, but Peter in verse 19, he's acknowledging, but most of you aren't. So what do you do? Well, what you do is you pay attention to the scriptures. You will do well to pay attention to it, the prophetic word of God, you will do well to pay attention to it.
Speaker 3He says as to a lamp shining in a dark place, and the result of meditating on the scriptures and understanding the scriptures and seeing Christ in the scriptures, the fruit of that is that the morning star rises in your hearts. And so that is the type of people that. This is the type of people we want to do or we want to be. We want to be people who pay attention to the scriptures. As to a lamp shining in a dark place and anchor, you know, all of our anchor, all of our hope and our understanding of Christ in the scriptures, and I think once you see Christ in the scriptures, everything begins to change. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1And I think to your point of anchoring the scriptures, it does help us understand the importance of the Old Testament in particular, which, you know, over the last few years has been, there's been such a uh, an attempt to like let's kind of unhitch from the old Testament because of things in the old Testament that are hard to deal with. You know, and, uh, you know, you have Israel going in and killing all kinds of people and the Canaanites, yeah, so there's a lot of things that are difficult, but yet, peter, paul, everyone, they don't, they don't shy away from, they'd rather they go back to and say, no, this actually is what our hope is rooted in, is the word of God, and you, like you said, should pay attention to it, and so to it isn't just the New Testament, it's the Old Testament as well, it's both. So we need both. In fact, we need the old to make sense of the new. We need the new really to make sense of the old. They work together. That's right.
Speaker 1When you read Hebrews I mean, man, the book of Hebrews is going back to the Old Testament again and again and again. Or Paul and Romans, like when we finished up here not so long ago. It's going back to the Old Testament again and again and again. And so we, too, need to continue to actually study and learn and meditate on the Old Testament.
