Acts 4:27-28

DISCOURSE: 1750
CHRIST’S SUFFERINGS FORE-ORDAINED

Acts 4:27. Of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

A COMPARISON of events with prophecy is a source of the strongest conviction and consolation to the mind. So the Apostles found it in the hour of trial, when, for the Gospel’s sake, they had been imprisoned, and menaced with the severest punishment that could be inflicted on them. They saw that the prophecies relating to their Divine Master had all been unwittingly fulfilled, even by his bitterest enemies: and they comforted themselves with the thought, that the same God, who had so accomplished his own gracious purposes in relation to him, would in like manner bring glory to himself out of the sufferings which they also were called to endure. They cite before God the prediction brought to their minds; and they declare, that, in all which had been done to the holy child Jesus, they saw nothing less than a complete accomplishment of God’s eternal counsels and decrees.
In discoursing on these words, I will,

I. Confirm their assertion—

The assertion is made in the form of an appeal to God: and it relates to the sufferings of Christ,

1. As fore-ordained of God—

[All of them were fore-ordained, when God determined to give up his only dear Son to die for the sins of men. Man had merited condemnation: and Jesus must be condemned by a legal process, and be “numbered with transgressors.” Man had incurred the penalty of God’s law, and was to be accursed from God: and Christ must die a death which God’s law pronounced accursed, even the death of the cross [Note: Galatians 3:13.]. In executing this judgment, there must be a concurrence of all orders of men, Jews and Gentiles, the highest rulers and the lowest populace; Jews, to accuse him according to their law; and Gentiles, to adjudge him to a death which was not recognised by that law, and which could be inflicted by Gentiles only. Man had deserved the utmost shame and contempt: and to these must Jesus be exposed, even as one “worthy to be abhorred” by all mankind [Note: Isaiah 49:7.]. He must be scourged also [Note: Psalms 129:3.], though that was no part of the punishment connected with crucifixion. A vast number of very minute circumstances, also, were to attend his crucifixion. He was to be betrayed by one of his own Disciples; sold for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a slave; and, whilst yet upon the cross, to be taunted by the populace, and challenged, if he were not an impostor, to save himself. Vinegar was to be offered to him, instead of a draught that should assuage his anguish: lots were to be cast for his vesture: and though no bone of his was to be broken, he was to be pierced in his hands and feet, and in his side even to the heart [Note: John 19:36.]. Together with these, and a multitude of other minute circumstances which were ordained of God to be attendant on his death, it was appointed that he should “make his grave with the rich.”

And all these things the Apostles speak of,]

2. As executed by man—

[The Psalmist clearly predicts the union of all manner of persons, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, in the execution of this bloody tragedy. And the Apostles call God to witness, that the prophecy adduced had been literally fulfilled in Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentile soldiers and the people Israel [Note: Psalms 2:2. with ver. 25, 26.]. Yea, so exactly had every prophecy been fulfilled, that it seemed as if all the different classes had been called together, to examine carefully into the predictions; and each person had had his part assigned him, so that not one jot or tittle of them might remain unfulfilled. Judas shall betray him. The chief priests, unable, by reason of their subjection to the Romans, to execute their own law, shall deliver him to Pilate, the Roman governor. He, willing to pacify them, shall have him scourged; but afterwards shall be constrained, by their clamour, to give orders for his crucifixion. The populace shall be ready enough, each in his place, to fulfil the rest; and the Roman soldier, to ascertain, or complete, his death, shall pierce him with the spear. All shall be as active as if they had conspired together to perform their respective parts, and to accomplish every prediction respecting him. Thus it had been ordained of God that it should be: and thus, in fact, it was; even one acting an independent part, as occasion called for it, and as his situation enabled him to act: and thus was there as complete an agreement between the predictions and events, as between a seal with ten thousand lines and the impression taken from it.]

Their assertion being thus confirmed, I will proceed to,

II.

Shew the proper and legitimate consequences to be deduced from it—

If we mark only the expressions in my text, we shall be ready to draw from them very erroneous inferences and deductions. We shall be ready to say, ‘If what these people did was only “what God’s hand and counsel had determined before to be done,” we must not condemn them: they were only instruments in the hand of a superior power: and if there be any evil in what they did, it must be traced to Jehovah himself, whose counsel had decreed it, and who, by his power, stimulated them to the commission of it.’ But all this is quite erroneous. Though God had ordained these things, he never instigated any man to the commission of them; he only elevated men to situations, where, if they were so disposed, they might execute all the evil that was in their hearts, and left them at liberty to follow their own will. It was thus that he elevated Pharaoh to the throne of Egypt, and gave him up to the hardness of his own heart: and Pharaoh, of his own mind and will, persisted in his opposition, till the Jews were irrecoverably delivered, and he with all his army were destroyed. Thus St. Peter told the Jews, that though Jesus had been “delivered according to the determinate counsel of God, they with wicked hands had crucified and slain him [Note: Acts 2:23.].” “As for God, he cannot be tempted of evil; neither tempteth he any man [Note: James 1:13.].” In all that those murderers did, they were voluntary agents, and put forth only the evil that was in their own hearts. Therefore to them, and to them alone, must be imputed all the evil which they respectively committed.

But if we look to the facts, they will afford very rich and useful instruction. From them may be

deduced the following most important consequences:

1. That Christ is assuredly the true Messiah—

[If there had been but few predictions relative to the Messiah’s death, and they such as admitted of being carried into effect by a well-concerted conspiracy, the fulfilment of them would have had comparatively but little weight in a subject of such importance. But they were so numerous, so minute, and, if I may so express myself, so contradictory, that it was not possible for his friends to form a conspiracy equal to the occasion. Besides, there were many of the predictions which could not be carried into effect, but by enemies. Who but enemies could deliver him up to the Gentiles? who but enemies could nail him to the cross, and load him with such contempt, and pierce him to the heart with the spear? But when we see so many prophecies fulfilled by people wholly unconnected with each other, yea, and hostile to each other, as Herod and Pilate were, and Jews and Gentiles were, the conviction is irresistible: He is, and must be, the predicted Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world — — —]

2. That no opposition, however sanctioned by the great and learned, should at all weaken our conviction of the truths we have received—

[Against the Lord Jesus Christ were engaged all the great and learned of the land. But was his religion, therefore, the more questionable? No: if there had not been one added to his Apostles as a witness for him, he would still have been the same Almighty Saviour, worthy of all possible honour and trust. So I may say with respect to us at this day. Many will urge, as they did, in reference to our Saviour, “Have any of the rulers and of the Pharisees believed on him? But this poor people are cursed.” Yes, many will ask, with a kind of confidence, ‘What do your governors in Church and State think of your opinions? Do you find them walking in the same strict and self-denying ways that you do?’ I grant, there are not many rich, or mighty, or noble, or wise, that are called: and that, for the most part, it is to the poor that the Lord Jesus Christ is preached; and that by them, almost alone, is he received. But, if this invalidated not in any degree the testimony of the Apostles, neither does it weaken our testimony respecting the Gospel of Christ. “It is to the word and to the testimony” that we make our appeal; and by that must all sentiments be tried and judged. And, if we speak according to the Scriptures, we should not regard it, even though, like Elijah, we, in appearance, stood alone in the midst of the land. I grant, that singularity will not prove us to be right: but neither will it prove us to be wrong. Christ’s have ever been a “little flock,” and his way “a narrow way:” and if ever we would be saved, we must come forth, like Lot, from Sodom; and be saved, like Noah, in the Ark prepared for us.]

3. That no trial shall come upon us beyond what our all-wise God shall see fit to permit, and what our infinitely gracious God will overrule for our good—

[Of all the heavy trials which our blessed Lord sustained, there was not so much as one which was not allotted to him by infinite Wisdom, and rendered subservient to the great ends of his mission. No one could seize him before his time: and though they drove nails through parts full of small bones, and pierced his side with a spear, no one was permitted to break so much as one of his bones. Now, thus will God take care of us, both in our individual and collective capacity. The attempts to destroy his Church have been numerous and sanguinary: but the gates of hell have never been able to prevail against it. And our trials, also, may be heavy; but God has engaged, that “they shall all work together for our spiritual and eternal good.” We may well, therefore, adopt the language of the Psalmist; and say, “We will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled; though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof [Note: Psalms 46:2.].” Behold the Lord Jesus Christ as enthroned in glory, and see in what his troubles have issued: or behold Joseph, when at the highest post of honour in Egypt, and his parents and his brethren were bowing down to him. There you see in what his successive trials issued; and how every one was but as a link in the chain of God’s eternal purposes; a link without which, humanly speaking, all God’s purposes respecting him had failed. Be not then cast down, because your troubles are numerous and heavy, and because you cannot yet discern what will be the end of them; but commit yourselves to God, in the assured expectation, that “if you suffer with your adorable Lord, you shall also reign with him in due time, and be eternally glorified together.”]