In the first-ever gospel message of the newborn church, the apostle Peter preached that Psalm 16 is about Christ: “David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. . . . For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. . . . You will make me full of gladness with your presence’” (Acts 2:25-28, emphasis added). This effusive statement, attributed to the Messiah, is a triple affirmation of His happiness!
The passage Peter ascribed to Jesus includes Psalm 16:11: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” The New Life Version says, “Being with You is to be full of joy. In Your right hand there is happiness forever.”
I’m convinced we should view this first apostolic sermon as a model for sharing the gospel today. Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, preached a prototype gospel message, asserting three times the happiness of the one who is at the center of the gospel—Jesus. Yet how many people, unbelievers and believers alike, have ever heard a modern gospel message that makes this point? Peter preached that Jesus was “full of gladness”; why shouldn’t we?
What if we regularly declared the happiness of our Savior? Imagine the response if we emphasized that what Jesus did on that terrible cross was for the sake of never-ending happiness—ours and His (see Hebrews 12:2). We would be proclaiming a part of the gospel that’s not only exceedingly attractive but also entirely true.
I share more about the happiness of the triune God in this video:
