For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead… ~ Acts 13:27-30

According to Acts 13:27-30 the following are true.

• Those who crucified Jesus did not know him.
• Those who crucified Jesus did not know the voices of the prophets who had prophesied concerning the sufferings of the Messiah.
• Those who condemned Jesus fulfilled the words of the prophets by their condemnation of him. In their ignorance they did exactly what the prophets had prophesied they would do to the Messiah. 
• They had no other reason for putting him to death than the simple fact that they hated him.
• After they (not God) had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the cross and buried him. 
• God, in opposition to what they had done, raised him from the dead. 

When Jesus was alone with his disciples just prior to his trial and crucifixion, he addressed the hatred of the religious Jews and their leaders who were against him.

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. ~ John 15:18 – 25

Jesus tells his disciples that they too would be rejected by the world because the world had first rejected him. In John 8 Jesus had referred to the religious Jews who opposed him as being of the world.

And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. ~ John 8:23 

The rejection that Jesus endured from men, which ultimately resulted in his death, was the people’s rejection of God who had sent him. Jesus interprets the scripture, “they hated me without a cause” as hatred aimed at both he and his Father, God.

This is consistent with the words prayed by the church in Acts 4.

And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For 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. ~ Acts 4:23-28

These words in Acts 4 are taken from Psalm 2. Notice that those who opposed Jesus and put him to death were gathered together against the Lord and his Christ. This is a reference to God and Jesus. Now consider the words of the prophet Isaiah.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. ~ Isaiah 53:4-5

The phrase “we esteemed him smitten of God and afflicted” is contextually a reference to the perception and not the reality, for it was sinful men and not God who condemned Jesus. The scars which marred his back from the lashings he endured, the nails which pierced his hands and feet, the crown of thorns which was placed on his head, and the shame he endured throughout his trial and crucifixion all came from sinful men who fulfilled what God had declared they would do to him.

Now, consider again, Paul’s words from Acts 13.

For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. But God raised him from the dead… ~ Acts 13:27-30

It was sinful men who fulfilled all that the scriptures had foretold about the sufferings of Christ on the cross, and in response to their condemnation of his Son, God raised him from the dead.

The phrase, “But God raised him from the dead” in Acts 13 sums up what the apostles preached over and over again throughout the book of Acts.

The predetermined counsel of God was that Jesus die for our sins and this was fulfilled by what actually happened at the cross when Jesus died at the hands of sinful men.

Absolutely nowhere in the book of Acts will you ever find anyone describing the sufferings of Christ as being something God did to him. It is always, 100% of the time, what the people who rejected him as Messiah did to him.

Furthermore, the resurrection is always (over and over again), God’s answer to the unjust condemnation of his Son by sinful men. If we will stay true to the narrative, we will see that Christ endured the opposition of sinful man against God. This is the testimony of scripture, and it is how God perfected Jesus to become our Great High Priest after he was raised from the dead and entered into his glory.

In Romans 15 we read, Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. ~ Romans 15:3

I think sometimes Romans 15:3 doesn’t get the attention that it should in our theology. This text tells us that Jesus bore the brunt of sinful humanity’s opposition against God.

The body of the crucified Christ became the whipping board, not for God’s anger against sinful men, but for sinful men’s hatred and anger against a Holy God. When we say that it was God’s wrath that Jesus bore, we have it backwards. It was man’s wrath, not God’s that Jesus endured. 

Jesus was God in the flesh dying for all people. Our reproaches against God fell on him. All our hatred and rebellion against God was levied against Jesus and in that place he responded with forgiveness.

Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. ~ Luke 23:34

The author of Hebrews tells us to keep looking to Jesus who endured such opposition from men, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God ~ Hebrews 12:2

The shame Jesus endured was humiliation which came from men who hated and opposed both he and God. The son of God was placed on public display in the most humiliating fashion wherein he was mocked and ridiculed by those who despised both he and his Father, God.

The resurrection of Jesus was God’s response to what sinful men had done to his beloved Son. Throughout Acts, the apostles and others like Stephen, always preached the crucifixion of Jesus as unjust condemnation of God’s Son and the resurrection as God’s vindication of Jesus.

This is the narrative!

Jesus is God’s son and he willingly laid down his life as an innocent lamb for our sins. In doing so, he was put to death by evil men who were cruel and unjust in their treatment of him. Stephen actually accused the leaders of Israel of murdering God’s Son.

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: ~ Acts 7:51-52 

By refusing to acknowledge what God had done in raising his Son from the dead, these leaders to whom Stephen was speaking were continuing to resist the Holy Spirit. God had overturned their unjust condemnation of his holy Son when he raised him from the dead and exalted him at his own right hand.

Christ’s purity and innocence before God, his committing of his soul into the Father’s hands, and his laying down his life for our redemption, pleased God.

According to Peter, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:.. ~ 1 Peter 2: 21-23

Jesus died, committing himself to God, who vindicated him by raising him from the dead.

Remember in Acts 4, the church prayed the words taken for Psalm 2: Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. ~ Acts 4:25-26

In Psalm 2, the Psalmist says the following in response to those words.

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them (those who were gathered against him and his Christ) in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Notice to whom God’s wrath and displeasure is aimed. It is aimed at those who dishonor him by dishonoring his Son. It is aimed at those like the ones to whom Stephen preached, telling them that they always resist the Holy Spirit.

Rather than repenting and confessing that the One they murdered is indeed the Just One, the Son of God whom God exalted, they hardened their hearts and stoned Stephen. The message of the cross when preached correctly leads to either repentance, or a more hardening of the heart. We see it over and over again throughout the book of Acts.

The Psalmist continues:

Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee (give to His Son) the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. ~ Psalm 2: 4-12

This is God’s response in his vindication of Jesus – Kiss the Son, lest he (God) be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him (in the Son).

Jesus, God’s Son, is the stone which the builders (the spiritual leaders in Israel) rejected, but whom God has chosen.  If we never grasp the resurrection as God’s vindication of his Son, we will never truly begin to grasp the place of prominence it has within the pages of scripture.

Paul says in his first letter to Timothy, And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. ~ 1 Timothy 3:16

Those words, justified in the Spirit, can easily be passed over or misinterpreted. Paul is actually saying that Jesus, who is God in the flesh, was declared righteous.

The word justified comes from the Greek word, δικαιόω, which means to show to be righteous, declare righteous. In usage form it means: I make righteous, defend the cause of, plead for the righteousness (innocence) of, acquit, justify; hence: I regard as righteous.

This is what God did when he raised Jesus from the dead. He declared him as the righteous One!

God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now he commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to him. For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead. When they heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.” ~ Acts 17:30-32 NLT

Jesus was raised from the dead, because God declared him to be the just and righteous One, whom Peter told the people in Acts 3 that they had rejected.

And this is what the resurrection declaration is all about. Jesus is Lord, he is the Messiah, and God raised him from the dead to prove it!