Acts 2:14

said unto them

The theme of Peter's sermon at Pentecost is stated in Acts 2:36. It is, that Jesus is the Messiah. No message could have been more unwelcome to the Jews who had rejected His Messianic claims, and crucified Him. Peter, therefore, does not announce his theme until he has covered every possible Jewish objection. The point of difficulty with the Jews was the apparent failure of the clear and repeated prophetic promise of a regathered Israel established in their own land under their covenanted King (e.g). ; Isaiah 11:10-12; Jeremiah 23:5-8; Ezekiel 37:21. Instead of explaining, as Rome first taught, followed by some Protestant commentators, that the covenant and promises were to be fulfilled in the church in a so-called "spiritual" sense, Peter shows Acts 2:25-32 from Psalms 16:0. that David himself understood that the dead and risen Christ would fulfil the covenant and sit on his throne Luke 1:32; Luke 1:33. In precisely the same way James Acts 15:14-17 met the same difficulty. See "Kingdom (O.T.)," Zechariah 12:8 (N.T.), ; Luke 1:33; 1 Corinthians 15:24.