Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3229
“Him has God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 5:31.
[Another Sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same verse is #1301, Volume 22—A PRINCE AND A SAVIOR.]
THIS was part of the answer of Peter and the other Apostles to the question and declaration of the high priest— “Did not we command you that you should not teach in this name? And, behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your Doctrine and intend to bring this Man’s blood upon us.” Then Peter and the other Apostles replied, “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew and hanged on a tree.” And, in the verse following our text, they claimed to be witness-bearers for the risen and reigning Prince and Savior. And, more than that, they declared that they were co-witnesses with “the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to them that obey Him.” These Apostles were the representatives of Messiah, the Prince, acting under His authority and, as far as they could, filling up the gap caused by His absence. They asserted that their preaching and teaching had been done by Divine Command which could not be set aside by any human authority—imperial or ecclesiastical—and that the true Prince of Israel, the Son of David, alone, had the power and the right to issue commissions to those who owned allegiance to Jehovah. They declared that Jesus, whom the chief priests had crucified, was still alive reigning in Glory, enthroned at the right hand of God and that they were only fulfilling His royal commands when they were “standing in the Temple and teaching the people.”
Moreover, when the Apostles stated that in addition to being a Prince, Jesus was also a Savior, and that He had been exalted with His Father’s right hand in order that He might “give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins,” they gave the very best reason in the world for their preaching—for they were all engaged in preaching that sinners should repent—and in assuring those who didrepent that their sins were forgiven for Christ’s sake! I cannot conceive of any better argument than this which the Apostles used when answering the high priest—“You command us not to teach in Christ’s name, but the command of the Son of God, our Prince and Savior, is ‘that repentance and remission of sins [See
Sermons #329, Volume 6—CHRIST’S FIRST AND LAST SUBJECT; #1729, Volume 29—BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM and #3224, Volume 56—“REPENTANCE AND REMISSION.”] should be preached in His name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem.’ So, as we ‘ought to obey God rather than men,’ we have filled Jerusalem with His Doctrine. And we mean to go on preaching repentance and remission until, as far as we are able, we have filled the whole world with this Doctrine.” That purpose of Christ was, at least in part, fulfilled by the Apostles in their day. God did give repentance and remission of sins to a chosen remnant of Israel. And when the rest of the Jews rejected the testimony of Christ’s servants, they said, as Paul and Barnabas did to the Jews at Antioch, “It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” We must never forget, Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that we owe the first preaching of the Gospel to the Jews. They were, in all lands that were then known, the heralds of Christ, publishing the royal proclamation far and wide. Under the old dispensation, “unto them were committed the oracles of God” and the Gospel of the New Covenant was, in the first instance, entrusted to them—and it was through the Jews that it was made known unto us Gentiles! Let us remember this fact as we contemplate the glorious future, both of Jews and Gentiles. Israel as a nation will yet acknowledge her blessed Prince and Savior. During many centuries the chosen people who were of old so highly
favored above all other nations on the face of the earth, have been scattered and peeled, oppressed and persecuted, until sometimes it seemed as if they must be utterly destroyed—yet they shall be restored to their own land which again shall be a land flowing with milk and honey. Then, when their hearts are turned to Messiah the Prince and they look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn over their sin in so long rejecting Him, the fullness of the Gentiles shall also come and Jew and Gentile, alike, shall rejoice in Christ their Savior!
In taking such a text as this, I think it is always right to first give the actual meaning of the passage before using it in any other way. This I have already done by showing you what I suppose the Apostles meant in replying as they did to the high priest. Now let us try to gather other Truths of God from this passage.
I. First, let us learn that ALL WHO RIGHTLY RECEIVE CHRIST RECEIVE HIM BOTH AS PRINCE AND SAVIOR. He is exalted this day for many purposes—as a reward for all the pangs He endured upon the Cross, as our Covenant Head and Representative—and that He may rule over all things for the good of His Church, as Joseph ruled over Egypt for the good of his brethren. Christ is exalted as a pledge of our exaltation, for, “we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is.”