Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 2:36

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified." — Acts 2:36 (ASV)

Therefore let all, etc. "Convinced by the prophecies, by our testimony, and by the remarkable scene displayed on the day of Pentecost, let all be convinced that the true Messiah has come and has been exalted to heaven."

House of Israel. The word house often means family; let all the family of Israel, that is, all the nation of the Jews, know this.

Know assuredly. Be assured, or know without any hesitation or possibility of mistake. This is the sum of his argument or his discourse. He had established the points he intended to prove, and he now applies it to his hearers.

God has made. God has appointed or constituted. See Acts 5:31.

That same Jesus. The very person who had suffered. He was raised with the same body and had the same soul; was the same being, as distinguished from all others. So Christians, in the resurrection, will be the same beings that they were before they died.

Whom you have crucified. See Acts 2:23. There was nothing better suited to show them the guilt of having done this than the argument Peter used. He showed them that God had sent him, that he was the Messiah, and that God had shown his love for him by raising him from the dead.

The Son of God and the hope of their nation they had put to death. He was not an impostor, nor a man sowing sedition, nor a blasphemer, but the Messiah of God; and they had stained their hands with his blood.

There is nothing better suited to make sinners fear and tremble than to show them that in rejecting Christ, they have rejected God; in refusing to serve him, they have refused to serve God. The crime of sinners has a double malignity, as committed against a kind and lovely Savior and against the God who loved him and appointed him to save people. Compare to Acts 3:14-15.

Both Lord. The word lord properly denotes proprietor, master, or sovereign. Here it clearly means that God had exalted him to be the King so long expected, and that he had given him dominion in the heavens; or, as we should say, ruler of all things.

The extent of this dominion may be seen in John 17:2; Ephesians 1:20–22 and following. In the exercise of this office, he now rules in heaven and on earth; and will yet come to judge the world.

This truth was particularly suited to excite their fear. They had murdered their Sovereign, now shown to be raised from the dead and entrusted with infinite power.

They had reason, therefore, to fear that he would come forth in vengeance and punish them for their crimes. Sinners, opposing the Savior, are at war with their living and mighty Sovereign and Lord. He has all power, and it is not safe to contend against the Judge of the living and the dead.

And Christ. Messiah. They had thus crucified the hope of their nation; stained their hands with the blood of Him to whom the prophets had looked, and put to death that Holy One, the prospect of whose coming had sustained the most holy people of the world in affliction and cheered them when they looked toward future years. That hope of their fathers had come, and they had put him to death; and it is no wonder that the consciousness of this, that a sense of guilt, and shame, and confusion, should overwhelm their minds and lead them to ask in deep distress what they should do.