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The Acts of the Apostles
shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My
Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream
dreams: and on My servants and on My handmaidens I will pour out
in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy.”
With clearness and power Peter bore witness of the death and
resurrection of Christ: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of
Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders
and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves
also know: Him ... ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death:
because it was not possible that He should be holden of it.”
Peter did not refer to the teachings of Christ to prove his position,
because he knew that the prejudice of his hearers was so great that
his words on this subject would be of no effect. Instead, he spoke to
them of David, who was regarded by the Jews as one of the patriarchs
of their nation. “David speaketh concerning Him,” he declared: “I
foresaw the Lord always before My face, for He is on My right hand,
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that I should not be moved: therefore did My heart rejoice, and My
tongue was glad; moreover also My flesh shall rest in hope: because
Thou wilt not leave My soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine
Holy One to see corruption....
“Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us
unto this day.” “He ... spake of the resurrection of Christ, that His soul
was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see corruption. This Jesus
hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”
The scene is one full of interest. Behold the people coming from
all directions to hear the disciples witness to the truth as it is in Jesus.
They press in, crowding the temple. Priests and rulers are there, the
dark scowl of malignity still on their faces, their hearts still filled with
abiding hatred against Christ, their hands uncleansed from the blood
shed when they crucified the world’s Redeemer. They had thought to
find the apostles cowed with fear under the strong hand of oppression
and murder, but they find them lifted above all fear and filled with the
Spirit, proclaiming with power the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth. They
hear them declaring with boldness that the One so recently humiliated,