now decayed, degenerated, and apostatized.2 The Word, the rule of
worship, was rejected of them, and in its place they had put and set up
their own traditions: they had rejected, also, the most weighty
ordinances, and put in the room thereof their own little things (Matt
15; Mark 7). Jerusalem was therefore now greatly backslidden, and
become the place where the truth and true religion were much defaced.
It was also now become the very sink of sin and seat of hypocrisy, and
gulf where true religion was drowned. Here also now reigned
presumption, and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane of
souls. Amongst its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and
blasphemy vented itself against the power of godliness, in all places
where it was espied; as also against the promoters of it; yea, their
Lord and Maker could not escape them.
In a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very
slaughter-shop for saints. This was the place wherein the prophets,
Christ, and his people, were most horribly persecuted and murdered.
Yea, so hardened at this time was this Jerusalem in her sins, that she
feared not to commit the biggest, and to bind herself, by wish, under
the guilt and damning evil of it; saying, when she had murdered the Son
of God, ‘His blood be on us, and on our children.’ And though Jesus
Christ did, both by doctrine, miracles, and holiness of life, seek to
put a stop to their villanies, yet they shut their eyes, stopped their
ears, and rested not, till, as was hinted before, they had driven him
out of the world. Yea, that they might, if possible, have extinguished
his name, and exploded his doctrine out of the world, they, against all
argument, and in despite of heaven, its mighty hand, and undeniable
proof of his resurrection, did hire soldiers to invent a lie, saying,
his disciples stole him away from the grave; on purpose that men might
not count him the Saviour of the world, nor trust in him for the
remission of sins.
They were, saith Paul, contrary to all men: for they did not only shut
up the door of life against themselves, but forbade that it should be
opened to any else. ‘Forbidding us,’ saith he, ‘to speak to the
Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway’ (1
Thess 2:14-16; Matt 23:35; 15:7-9; Mark 7:6-8; Matt 3:7-9; John
8:33,41; Matt 27:18; Mark 3:30; Matt 23:37; Luke 13:33,34; Matt 27:25;
20:11-16).
This is the city, and these are the people; this is their character,
and these are their sins: nor can there be produced their parallel in
all this world. Nay, what world, what people, what nation, for sin and
transgression, could or can be compared to Jerusalem? especially if you
join to the matter of fact the light they sinned against, and the
patience which they abused. Infinite was the wickedness upon this
account which they committed.
After all their abusings of wise men, and prophets, God sent unto them
John Baptist, to reduce them, and then his Son, to redeem them; but
they would be neither reduced nor redeemed, but persecuted both to the
death. Nor did they, as I said, stop here; the holy apostles they
afterwards persecuted also to death, even so many as they could; the
rest they drove from them unto the utmost corners.
SECOND, I come not to show you what it was to preach the gospel to
them. It was, saith Luke, to preach to them ‘repentance and remission
of sins’ in Christ’s name; or, as Mark has it, to bid them ‘repent and
believe the gospel’ (Mark 1:15). Not that repentance is a cause of
remission, but a sign of our hearty reception thereof. Repentance is
therefore here put to intimate, that no pretended faith of the gospel
is good that is not accompanied with it; and this he doth on purpose,
because he would not have them deceive themselves: for with what faith
can he expect remission of sins in the name of Christ, that is not
heartily sorry for them? Or how shall a man be able to give to others a
satisfactory account of his unfeigned subjection to the gospel, that
yet abides in his impenitency?
Wherefore repentance is here joined with faith, in the way of receiving
the gospel. Faith is that without which it cannot be received at all;
and repentance that without which it cannot be received unfeignedly.
When, therefore, Christ says, he would have a repentance and remission
of sins preached in his name among all nations, it is as much as to
say, I will that all men everywhere be sorry for their sins, and accept
of mercy at God’s hand through me, lest they fall under his wrath in
the judgment; for, as I have said, without repentance, what pretence
soever men have of faith, they cannot escape the wrath to come.
Wherefore Paul said, God commands ‘all men everywhere to repent,’ (in
order to their salvation): ‘because he hath appointed a day, in the
which he shall judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he
hath ordained’ (Acts 17:31).
And now, to come to this clause, ‘Beginning at Jerusalem’; that is,
that Christ would have Jerusalem have the first offer of the gospel. 1.
This cannot be so commanded because they had now any more right, of
themselves, thereto, than had any of the nations of the world; for
their sins had divested them of all self-deservings. 2. Nor yet because
they stood upon the advance-ground with the worst of the sinners of the
nations; nay, rather, the sinners of the nations had the advance-ground
of them: for Jerusalem was, long before she had added this iniquity to
her sin, worse than the very nations that God cast out before the
children of Israel (2 Chron 33). 3. It must, therefore, follow, that
this cause, ‘Beginning at Jerusalem,’ was put into this commission of
mere grace and compassion, even from the overflowings of the bowels of
mercy; for indeed they were the worst, and so in the most deplorable
condition of any people under the heavens.3
Whatever, therefore, their relation was to Abraham, Isaac, or
Jacob—however they formerly had been the people among whom God had
placed his name and worship, they were now degenerated from God, more
than the nations were from their idols, and were become guilty of the
highest sins which the people of the world were capable of committing.
Nay, none can be capable of committing of such pardonable sins as they
committed against their God, when they slew his Son, and persecuted his
name and Word.
[DOCTRINE.]
From these words, therefore, thus explained, we gain this
observation:—That Jesus Christ. would have mercy offered, in the first
place, to the biggest sinners
That these Jerusalem sinners were the biggest sinners that ever were in
the world, I think none will deny, that believes that Christ was the
best man that ever was in the world, and also was their Lord God. And
that they were to have the first offer of his grace, the text is as
clear as the sun; for it saith, ‘Beginning at Jerusalem.’ ‘Preach,’
saith he, ‘repentance and remission of sins’ to the Jerusalem sinners:
to the Jerusalem sinners in the first place. One would a-thought, since
the Jerusalem sinners were the worst and greatest sinners, Christ’s
greatest enemies, and those that not only despised his person,
doctrine, and miracles, but that, a little before, had had their hands
up to the elbows in his heart’s blood, that he should rather have said,
Go into all the world, and preach repentance and remission of sins
among all nations; and, after that, offer the same to Jerusalem; yea,
it had been infinite grace if he had said so. But what grace is this,
or what name shall we give it, when he commands that this repentance
and remission of sins, which is designed to be preached in all nations,
should first be offered to Jerusalem; in the first place to the worst
of sinners!
Nor was this the first time that the grace, which was in the heart of
Christ, thus showed itself to the world. For while he was yet alive,
even while he was yet in Jerusalem, and perceived, even among these
Jerusalem sinners, which was the most vile among them, he still, in his
preaching, did signify that he had a desire that the worst of these
worst should, in the first place, come unto him. The which he showeth,
where he saith to the better sort of them, ‘The publicans and the
harlots go into the kingdom of God before you’ (Matt 21:31). Also when
he compared Jerusalem with the sinners of the nations, then he commands
that the Jerusalem sinners should have the gospel at present confined
to them. ‘Go not,’ saith he, ‘into the way of the Gentiles, and into
any of the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matt 10:5,6; 23:37). But go rather
to them, for they were in the most fearful plight. These, therefore,
must have the cream of the gospel, namely, the first offer thereof, in
his lifetime; yea, when he departed out of the world, he left this as
part of his last will with his preachers, that they also should offer
it first to Jerusalem. He had a mind, a careful mind, as it seems, to
privilege the worst of sinners with the fist offer of mercy, and to
take from among them a people, to be the first fruits unto God and to
the Lamb.
The 15th of Luke also is famous for this, where the Lord Jesus takes
more care, as appears there by three parables, for the lost sheep, lost
groat, and the prodigal son, than for the other sheep, the other pence,
or for the son that said he had never transgressed; yea, he shows that
there is joy in heaven, among the angels of God, at the repentance of
one sinner, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no
repentance. After this manner, therefore, the mind of Christ was set on
the salvation of the biggest sinners in his lifetime. But join to this,
this clause, which he carefully put into the apostles’ commission to
preach, when he departed hence to the Father, and then you shall see
that his heart was vehemently set upon it; for these were part of his
last words with them, Preach my gospel to all nations, but that you
begin at Jerusalem.
Nor did the apostles overlook this clause when their Lord was gone into
heaven; they went first to them of Jerusalem, and preached Christ’s
gospel to them; they abode also there for a season and time, and
preached it to nobody else, for they had regard to the commandment of
their Lord. And it is to be observed, namely, that the first sermon
which they preached after the ascension of Christ, it was preached to
the very worst of these Jerusalem sinners, even to those that were the
murderers of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:23), for these are part of the
sermon: ‘Ye took him, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain
him.’ Yea, the next sermon, and the next, and also the next to that,
was preached to the self-same murderers, to the end they might be saved
(Acts 3:14-16; 4:10,11; 5:30; 7:52).
But we will return to the first sermon that was preached to these
Jerusalem sinners, by which will be manifest more than great grace, if
it be duly considered. For after that Peter, and the rest of the
apostles, had, in their exhortation, persuaded these wretches to
believe that they had killed the Prince of life; and after they had
duly fallen under the guilt of their murder, saying, ‘Men and brethren,
what shall we do?’ he replies, by an universal tender to them all in
general, considering them as Christ’s killers, that if they were sorry
for what they had done, and would be baptized for the remission of
their sins in his name, they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
(Acts 2:37,38).
This he said to them all, though he knew that they were such sinners.
Yea, he said it without the least stick or stop, or pause of spirit, as
to whether he had best to say so or no. Nay, so far off was Peter from
making an objection against one of them, that, by a particular clause
in his exhortation, he endeavours, that not one of them may escape the
salvation offered. ‘Repent,’ saith he, ‘and be baptized every one of
you.’ I shut out never an one of you; for I am commanded by my Lord to
deal with you, as it were, one by one, by the word of his salvation.
But why speaks he so particularly? Oh! there were reasons for it. The
people with whom the apostles were now to deal, as they were murderers
of our Lord, and to be charged in the general with his blood, so they
had their various and particular acts of villany in the guilt thereof,
now lying upon their consciences. And the guilt of these, their various
and particular acts of wickedness, could not, perhaps, be reached to a
removal thereof but by this particular application. Repent, every one
of you; be baptized, every one of you, in his name, for the remission
of sins, and you shall, every one of you, receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost.
Objector. ‘But I was one of them that plotted to take away his life.
May I be saved by him?’
Peter. Every one of you.
Objector. ‘But I was one of them that bare false witness against him.
Is there grace for me?’
Peter. For every one of you.
Objector. ‘But I was one of them that cried out, Crucify him, crucify
him; and desired that Barabbas, the murderer, might live, rather than
him. What will become of me, think you?’
Peter. I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of
you, says Peter.
Objector. ‘But I was one of them that did spit in his face when he
stood before his accusers. I also was one that mocked him, when in
anguish he hanged bleeding on the tree. Is there room for me?’
Peter. For every one of you, says Peter.
Objector. ‘But I was one of them that, in his extremity, said, Give him
gall and vinegar to drink. Why may not I expect the same when anguish
and guilt is upon me?’
Peter. Repent of these your wickednesses, and here is remission of sins
for every one of you.
Objector. ‘But I railed on him, I reviled him, I hated him, I rejoiced
to see him mocked at by others. Can there be hope for me?’
Peter. There is, for every one of you. ‘Repent, and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ Oh! what a blessed ‘Every
one of you,’ is here! How willing was Peter, and the Lord Jesus, by his
ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the gospel, that
they might be made monuments of the grace of God! How unwilling, I say,
was he, that any of these should escape the hand of mercy! Yea, what an
amazing wonder is it to think, that above all the world, and above
everybody in it, these should have the first offer of mercy! ‘Beginning
at Jerusalem.’
But was there not something of moment in this clause of the commission?
Did not Peter, think you, see a great deal in it, that he should thus
begin with these men, and thus offer, so particularly, this grace to
each particular man of them?
But, as I told you, this is not all; these Jerusalem sinners must have
this offer again and again; every one of them must be offered it over
and over. Christ would not take their first rejection for a denial, nor
their second repulse for a denial; but he will have grace offered once,
and twice, and thrice, to these Jerusalem sinners. Is not this amazing
grace? Christ will not be put off. These are the sinners that are
sinners indeed. They are sinners of the biggest sort; consequently,
such as Christ can, if they convert and be saved, best serve his ends
and designs upon. Of which more anon.
But what a pitch of grace is this! Christ is minded to amaze the world,
and to show that he acteth not like the children of men. This is that
which he said of old, ‘I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath, I
will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not man’ (Hosea
11:9).5 This is not the manner of men; men are shorter winded; men are
soon moved to take vengeance, and to right themselves in a way of wrath
and indignation. But God is full of grace, full of patience, ready to
forgive, and one that delights in mercy. All this is seen in our text.
The biggest sinners must first be offered mercy; they must, I say, have
the cream of the gospel offered unto them.
But we will a little proceed. In the third chapter we find, that they
who escaped converting by the first sermon, are called upon again to
accept of grace and forgiveness, for their murder committed upon the
Son of God. You have killed, yea, ‘ye denied the Holy One and the Just,
and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of
life.’ Mark, he falls again upon the very men that actually were, as
you have it in the chapters following, his very betrayers and murderers
(Acts 3:14,15), as being loath that they should escape the mercy of
forgiveness: and exhorts them again to repent, that their sins might
‘be blotted out’(verse 19,20).
Again, in the fourth chapter, he charges them afresh with this murder
(verse 10), but withal tells them salvation is in no other. Then, like
a heavenly decoy, he puts himself also among them, to draw them the
better under the net of the gospel; saying, ‘There is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved’ (verse 12).
In the fifth chapter, you find them railing at him, because he
continued preaching among them salvation in the name of Jesus. But he
tells them, that that very Jesus whom they had slain and hanged on a
tree, him God had raised up, and exalted ‘to be a Prince and a Saviour,
to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins’ (verse 29-31).
Still insinuating, that though they had killed him, and to this day
rejected him, yet his business was to bestow upon them repentance and
forgiveness of sins.
’Tis true, after they began to kill again, and when nothing but killing
would serve their turn, then they that were scattered abroad went
everywhere preaching the word. Yet even some of them so hankered after
the conversion of the Jews, that they preached the gospel only to them.
Also the apostles still made their abode at Jerusalem, in hopes that
they might let down their net for another draught of these Jerusalem
sinners. Neither did Paul and Barnabas, who were the ministers of God
to the Gentiles, but offer the gospel, in the first place, to those of
them that, for their wickedness, were scattered, like vagabonds, among
the nations; yea, and when they rendered rebellion and blasphemy for
their service and love, they replied it was necessary that the word of
God should first have been spoken to them (Acts 1:8; 13:46,47).
Nor was this their preaching unsuccessful among these people: but the
Lord Jesus so wrought with the word thus spoken, that thousands of them
came flocking to him for mercy. Three thousand of them closed with him
at the first; and, afterwards, two thousand more; for now they were in
number about five thousand; whereas, before sermons were preached to
these murderers, the number of the disciples was not above ‘a hundred
and twenty’ (Acts 1:15; 2:41; 4:4).
Also among these people that thus flocked to him for mercy, there was a
‘great company of the priests’ (Acts 6:7). Now, the priests were they
that were the greatest of these biggest sinners; they were the
ringleaders, they were the inventors and ringleaders in the mischief.
It was they that set the people against the Lord Jesus, and that were
the cause why the uproar increased, until Pilate had given sentence
upon him. ‘The chief priests and elders,’ says the text, ‘persuaded
(the people) the multitude, that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy
Jesus’ (Matt 27:20). And yet, behold the priests, yea, a great company
of the priests, became obedient to the faith.6
Oh, the greatness of the grace of Christ, that he should be thus in
love with the souls of Jerusalem sinners! that he should be thus
delighted with the salvation of the Jerusalem sinners! that he should
not only will that his gospel should be offered them, but that it
should be offered unto them first, and before other sinners were
admitted to a hearing of it. ‘Begin at Jerusalem.’
Was this doctrine well believed, where would there be a place for a
doubt, or a fear of the damnation of the soul, if the sinner be
penitent, how bad a life soever he has lived, how many soever in number
are his sins? But this grace is hid from the eyes of men; the devil
hides it from them; for he knows it is alluring, he knows it has an
attracting virtue in it; for this is it that, above all arguments, can
draw the soul to God. I cannot help it, but must let drop another word.
The first church, the Jerusalem church, from whence the gospel was to
be sent into all the world, was a church made up of Jerusalem sinners.
These great sinners were here the most shining monuments of the
exceeding grace of God.
Thus, you see, I have proved the doctrine; and that not only by showing
you that this was the practice of the Lord Jesus Christ in his
lifetime, but his last will when he went up to God; saying, Begin to
preach at Jerusalem. Yea, it is yet further manifested, in that when
his ministers first began to preach there, he joined his power to the
word, to the converting of thousands of his betrayers and murderers,
and also many of the ringleading priests, to the faith.
I shall now proceed, and shall show you, FIRST, The reasons of the
point. SECOND, And then make some application of the whole.
[THE REASONS OF THE POINT.]
The observation, you know, is this: Jesus Christ would have mercy
offered, in the first place, to the biggest sinners, to the Jerusalem
sinners: ‘Preach repentance, and remission of sins, in my name, among
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.’
The reasons of the point are:—
First, Because the biggest sinners have most need thereof.
He that has most need, reason says, should be helped first. I mean,
when a helping hand is offered, and now it is; for the gospel of the
grace of God is sent to help the world (Act 16:9). But the biggest
sinner has most need. Therefore, in reason, when mercy is sent down
from heaven to men, the worst of men should have the first offer of it.
‘Begin at Jerusalem.’ This is the reason which the Lord Christ himself
renders, why, in his lifetime, he left the best, and turned him to the
worst; why he sat so loose from the righteous, and stuck so close to
the wicked. ‘The whole,’ saith he, ‘have no need of the physician, but
the sick. I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to
repentance’ (Mark 2:15-17).7
Above, you read that the scribes and Pharisees said to his disciples,
‘How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners?’
Alas! they did not know the reason; but the Lord renders them one, and
such an one as is both natural and cogent, saying, These have need,
most need. Their great necessity requires that I should be most
friendly, and show my grace first to them.
Not that the other were sinless, and so had no need of a Saviour; but
the publicans and their companions were the biggest sinners; they were,
as to view, worse than the scribes; and, therefore, in reason, should
be helped first, because they had most need of a Saviour.