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On the day of Pentecost, a bewildered crowd gathered around a group of ordinary Galileans suddenly speaking in foreign languages, accusing them of drunkenness at nine in the morning. Peter stepped forward to explain the extraordinary events, defend the disciples, and boldly proclaim the identity and work of Jesus of Nazareth. What he declared that day not only clarified the meaning of the miracle but confronted thousands with their responsibility and offered them immediate hope of salvation.
📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/our-mission
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📝 Study Notes, Scripture List, Transcript, and more: https://medicallake.church/sermons/our-mission
#mlcc #church #churchonline
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LearningTranscript
00:00I'm reading a book right now called Courageous Christianity by a man named D. Martin Lloyd-Jones.
00:06He died in 1981, so he died several years ago, but he was a Welsh Congregationalist
00:12pastor in Westminster Chapel in England, London, England, for 30 years he pastored.
00:17He's a scholar, a theologian, a pastor, writes really good stuff.
00:21He can take one verse and write 14 pages just on one verse.
00:25It's amazing, his insights.
00:26So I was reading the book, and I thought, you know what, this is exactly what we're
00:29going to be talking about in the text today.
00:33So he writes in this book called Courageous Christianity, he said, my whole object in
00:38this book, let me remind you, is to show what Christianity really is.
00:44It may seem strange to some of you that we still have to do that.
00:49The Christian faith began nearly 2,000 years ago, and there has been a Christian church
00:53ever since.
00:55One may say, surely it is no longer necessary to spend time telling us what Christianity
01:00is, but unfortunately, it is necessary.
01:04Our whole world is in a state of confusion, political confusion, moral confusion, international
01:09confusion, but there is no greater confusion than with respect to this one great question,
01:16what is the Christian message?
01:20What is the gospel?
01:22What is it that you and I are to share to our neighbor?
01:25And in 1981, he probably wrote it in the 70s, I'm guessing.
01:29He died in 81.
01:31In the 70s, he saw it as a problem.
01:33In the 70s, I think it's even worse today.
01:35I know there are children in our schools, high school on down, that really don't even
01:39know who Jesus is.
01:41They know him as a curse word, but that's it.
01:43They really have no understanding who Jesus is whatsoever.
01:46And it's hard for us to be able to tell people about Christianity or about the Christian
01:50message if we don't know what the Christian message is.
01:55This nation needs to hear the truth of what Peter has to say to his nation.
02:00We have the same message that we carry on to our nation as well.
02:04So here in Acts chapter 2, we'll be starting in verse number 14, so open your Bible, turn
02:09on your biblical device.
02:10This is God's word.
02:11We want to look at it together.
02:13So Peter preached the first gospel message, emphasizing the prophecy of God, the plan
02:19of God, the power of God, and the promise of God.
02:23And Teresa said, what, there's four points?
02:25What's that all about?
02:26Pastors only have three points.
02:27Well, actually, the text has four points.
02:30So we're going to stick with the text.
02:33So if we're called to be witnesses, we need to know what we're witnessing about.
02:37What is the message that we're supposed to tell people?
02:39And Peter gives us a really good example of how you and I can take the principles here
02:43and apply it when we share the gospel message.
02:45What is Christianity to other people?
02:49So here, the man who denied Jesus three times, in fact, it was so bad that when Jesus turned
02:54to look at him after the third time, Peter wept bitterly, the text says.
02:58Here's a man who denied Jesus three times, Jesus comes to him and ask him, do you love
03:03me?
03:04Three times.
03:05And he realized he really did love Jesus.
03:07Jesus restores him.
03:08Now this is the man preaching the first gospel sermon that we see.
03:13We're going to start in verse number 14.
03:16So again, follow along with me.
03:19Remember what's happened up to this point?
03:21The wind, the sound of the spirit coming in, the wind that came in, again, there was nothing
03:25probably moving.
03:26It was a sound that they heard.
03:27Then they saw the visible sign of the spirit coming in and leaving tongues of fire on each
03:32one of the people.
03:33They go out and they start speaking in languages that 15 geographical locations would recognize
03:40as their language.
03:41They heard it and they, and, and, and then they, the people go, ah, these people are
03:45just drunk.
03:46They're just drunk on new wine.
03:48And again, we talked about, that'd be really hard to do since it's just in the beginning
03:52of the fermentation process.
03:53You'd have to drink a gallon of it just to probably feel anything.
03:56So no, they're not drunk with wine.
04:00Verse 14, but Peter standing with the 11, so Peter and 11, that's the 12, lifted up
04:07his voice and address them.
04:10Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my
04:16words.
04:17For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day,
04:22it's 9am, they're not drunk.
04:25But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.
04:28So here now he quotes Joel out of the Old Testament.
04:32And in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
04:37And as your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions
04:42and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants in
04:47those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.
04:52And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire
04:57and vapor of smoke.
04:58The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes,
05:03the great and magnificent day, that day of the Lord that the prophets of the Old Testament
05:07talked about.
05:08And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
05:14So he opens up with this sermon.
05:16The sign got everyone gathered together and say, what's going on here?
05:20What is the message?
05:21And so Peter takes and stands up and says, this is the message that we're talking about.
05:26Notice that Peter began the sermon with God is, and he has spoken.
05:32That God exists and that he has spoken.
05:34He's speaking to Jewish people who have the Torah, the Old Testament, and were raised
05:38with the Torah and knew that God was, or God is, and that God has spoken.
05:43So he starts with God is, and he has spoken.
05:45He builds upon their common knowledge that they have.
05:48He knew his audience.
05:49He knew where they were at as Jews.
05:51So he builds on this common knowledge of the Messiah recorded in scriptures and calls upon
05:56it here.
05:57He didn't have to convince them that God existed.
05:59They knew God exists and they knew that God had spoken.
06:01So he pulls a prophecy under inspiration of the spirit.
06:04He pulls that prophecy out of Joel and gives it to them that day.
06:08This is the basic outline of the sermon.
06:10We'll kind of come back and talk through all the way through, but this is kind of basically
06:13how the sermon goes.
06:15He says, God is, and God has spoken.
06:17So we have a prophecy of God.
06:20And then he talks about the person of Jesus.
06:21This is what he did.
06:22This is what he did and his mighty works and his wonders.
06:26And then he talks about the plan of God, that God had a plan.
06:29It just wasn't an accident.
06:30And then he talks about the power of God by raising Jesus from the dead, exalting him
06:35and sitting him at his right hand, the power of God.
06:38And then we have the promise of the Holy Spirit that was actually Joel talks about here.
06:41He's going to talk about again later on.
06:43And then he says the promise of salvation, God's promise that all who repent and believe
06:48the gospel will be saved.
06:50All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
06:52That's kind of the gist of the whole sermon here.
06:55Now he starts with God is and God has spoken.
06:58When Paul was preaching in Acts 17, he started also with God is.
07:03But he was preaching to pagan philosophers who had no understanding of the Old Testament.
07:07So he couldn't really bring out a quotation of the Old Testament that they had no knowledge.
07:11He begins with where they are in Acts 17.
07:14And he begins with God is and he concludes with there is a judgment.
07:18So it's similar to Peter.
07:19This is a little different because the audience was different in Acts 17.
07:25So the 12 apostles, the eyewitnesses of the life and the death and the resurrection of
07:29Christ are there as a unified message.
07:32All 12 of them.
07:33Matthias is there.
07:34He's just not mentioned.
07:35But the 12 are there.
07:36We see.
07:37And then it says Peter addressed.
07:39Peter addressed the crowd.
07:41Addressed is the same word that we saw as utterance.
07:43And it's used in the Old Testament, the Hebrew, the Greek translation of the Old Testament,
07:48the Septuagint.
07:49It's used as prophesying, prophesying.
07:51So Peter is standing up and he's prophesying.
07:55You know, often we think that somehow prophesying is foretelling things that are yet to come.
08:03And that's partially true.
08:04We see that in the Old Testament.
08:05We see foretelling of things to come.
08:07But mostly we see, especially in the New Testament, what we see is forth telling, telling forth
08:13the word of God.
08:14He was prophesying.
08:15He pulled on the book of Joel and he's going to pull on David's psalm.
08:18So he's forth telling the word of God.
08:21He's prophesying.
08:24Technically speaking, what I'm doing right now is prophesying.
08:27I'm speaking forth the word of God.
08:30That is what Peter was doing that day.
08:31I'm speaking forth the word of God.
08:34They're not drunk.
08:35It's too early in the morning.
08:36No one's going to get drunk at this time of the day.
08:37In fact, they probably haven't even eaten yet.
08:39It said during these feast days, they waited till 10 a.m. to even eat.
08:42So they haven't eaten or drank anything at this point.
08:45They were under the influence, but not of wine.
08:48They were under the influence of the Holy Spirit for sure.
08:52So Peter says, listen, what you saw is in reference to this Old Testament prophecy that
08:56Joel gave us.
08:57So he goes back to the book of Joel and he pulls it out and he quotes it to them.
09:01I doubt he had any documents in front of him right now.
09:04This is the Holy Spirit giving him direction here.
09:07He quotes the verse.
09:10But really to understand what Joel is talking about, we got to put it in a context.
09:15What did Joel mean when he's writing to Israel in those days and when he wrote the book of
09:19Joel?
09:20Well, John Polhill actually puts in a good context for us.
09:24Joel's prophecy was originally given after a locust plague had ravaged the land.
09:29You can imagine a locust plague eating all the green stuff in the crops.
09:32You can imagine that, right?
09:34Creating a severe famine.
09:36Joel called the people to repentance, promising the restoration of their prosperity and going
09:41on to foresee the coming day of the Lord, the dawn of the messianic age when the Spirit
09:46will be poured out on all Israel.
09:48So that's the context of Joel.
09:49It was in the context of repentance, which he's going to call them to at the end as well.
09:53It's in the context of restoration, which all who believe, all who call on the name
09:57of the Lord will be saved.
09:59So Joel is a perfect, perfect text that the Spirit brings out right now for us.
10:05Here though, you notice there's things that are going, signs that are going on.
10:08You got the sun being darkened, the moon turned to blood.
10:11You've got wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth beneath.
10:14Now we do know at the crucifixion, it was dark for three hours.
10:18We know that, right?
10:19In the middle of the day, it got dark.
10:20It was a full moon.
10:21It could have been a blood moon.
10:22It could have been.
10:23We're not sure.
10:24We're not told in the scriptures whether it was.
10:26But there's other things that haven't happened yet.
10:29So you can kind of look at it like this.
10:30We see here a partial fulfillment of Joel's prophecy with a complete fulfillment later
10:35on.
10:37So he's opening up and he's giving us a long time span between the beginning and the end
10:42of that prophecy.
10:46In Matthew 24, Jesus talks about these signs in the heavens at his second coming.
10:52Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon
10:55will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens
10:59will be shaken.
11:01Then will appear in heaven the sign of the son of man, then all the tribes of the earth
11:05will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
11:09and great glory.
11:11So Joel's prophecy opens up with the church being established by the coming of the Holy
11:15Spirit and concludes with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
11:19Almost now a 2,000 year period, Joel's prophecy goes.
11:24The universal pouring out of the spirit demonstrated that the last days have come.
11:28We're in the last days right now.
11:30I know it's been almost 2,000 years, but we're in the last days.
11:33In fact, the last days, the time when God is working to restore all things to the resurrected
11:39Messiah, establishing his kingdom on the earth.
11:42He's going to bring it all together and establish this perfect kingdom where he sits on David's
11:46throne as king and the earth is going to be magnificent in this kingdom.
11:51Luke gives us an idea.
11:52I mean, excuse me, Isaiah gives us an idea what it's going to look like.
11:56The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, it shall come to pass
12:02in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as
12:06the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations
12:11shall flow to it.
12:12This is Israel.
12:14And many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
12:17to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk
12:21in his paths.
12:23For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
12:27He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they
12:33shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
12:37Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
12:42Could you imagine what that day is going to be like?
12:46We are a warring group of people, human beings.
12:50We are selfish.
12:51We want our way.
12:52We need laban's realm.
12:54We need more room for our people.
12:56So we conquer and we kill.
12:58We're a warlike people.
13:00That day there will be no war.
13:02There'll be peace on this earth.
13:08When he comes, everything will be different.
13:11So the Holy Spirit has come, been poured out on this day.
13:14It's evidence that Jesus has been raised and glorified and exalted because he said the
13:19spirit can't come until he's exalted.
13:22In John chapter seven, this is what Jesus said, whoever believes in me, as the scripture
13:26has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
13:30Now this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as
13:35yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
13:40So we know by the pouring out of the spirit, he's been raised, exalted and glorified and
13:43poured out his spirit to us within us.
13:46Not restricted to social status, not men, not women, not slave, not free, all believers
13:51receive the Holy Spirit.
13:53All of us do.
13:54And then he says, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
13:57What does that mean to call on the name of the Lord?
14:00What the name?
14:01I mean, Jesus, God, I mean, what does it mean to call on the name of the Lord?
14:06William McDonald gives us a good example.
14:08The name of the Lord is an expression that includes all that the Lord is.
14:13That's to call on his name is to call on himself as a true object of faith and as the only
14:19way of salvation, to call on the name of the Lord.
14:23And what's interesting here is for Peter, Jesus Christ is Lord.
14:28But if we go back to the book of Joel, it would say, what did Joel call God?
14:33Look in Joel 2.32, we already read, but look at 2.32, and it shall come to pass that everyone
14:38who calls on the name of the Lord, L-O-R-D, small caps, that's Yahweh.
14:45Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved.
14:48For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there should be those who escaped as Yahweh has
14:52said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord Yahweh calls.
14:57So who is Peter likening to Yahweh, to God Almighty?
14:59Jesus.
15:00In Peter's mind, there is no difference.
15:02He is God Almighty.
15:04He's stating clearly that Jesus is God.
15:07So now this next section, it's a longer section, but it actually, I'm sorry, this is a shorter
15:13section, just a couple of verses.
15:14But it really lays out the guilt of the Jewish people.
15:17Look at verse 22.
15:19Men of Israel, okay, good, all Jews gathered around listening to them.
15:23Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, interesting, it doesn't say Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth,
15:28names him so there's no confusion who this Jesus is, of Nazareth, a man attested to you
15:33by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as
15:38you yourselves know.
15:39They were around, they heard about it, people are talking all about this Jesus guy.
15:44They know about it, that you yourselves know.
15:48This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified
15:53and killed by the hands of lawless men.
15:59This is God's plan, this is God's plan.
16:04Salvation is God's plan, it's not man's plan.
16:06Man didn't sit around and make it up.
16:08Man would like to make up a story where he has to do something to earn God's favor, whereas
16:13the truth of the gospel is that Jesus has done it for us and therefore we can receive
16:17God's favor.
16:19We have to remember that the cross of Christ was not a cosmic accident.
16:24It was God's divine plan for the redemption of mankind.
16:30He planned it, he put it into motion, he made it come to pass.
16:35What was interesting, he used the sinfulness of human beings to bring about his plan.
16:42That's crazy.
16:44Our sin, he can use to make something good out of it.
16:48Jesus is one appointed by God, shown by his mighty works, his signs, his wonders.
16:55You remember up at this time?
16:57After the resurrection, the soldiers go back to the Jewish leaders and say, hey, he's gone.
17:02And they said, listen, tell everyone the disciples stole him.
17:05If you get in trouble, we'll go to the governor, you'll be okay, you'll be safe.
17:09So they tell the story.
17:11Guess what?
17:12That story is still going around right now.
17:13People listening to Peter preach have heard that story and they're going, wait a second.
17:18Someone said that the disciples stole the body.
17:20You mean God raised him from the dead?
17:25These signs that he did, they pointed beyond themselves to a deeper reality.
17:31He did it, but it pointed to something deeper.
17:32He did the sign, but it wasn't about the sign.
17:34The sign wasn't necessarily the important thing, it's what it pointed to was so important.
17:41And here in this small little text, we see clearly the sovereignty of God and human responsibility
17:46together in one text.
17:48A definite plan, but you put him to death.
17:51Did you see that?
17:52God's definite plan, but you put him to death.
17:55God's sovereignty and man's responsibility wrapped up right here in this verse.
18:00Stanley Porter wrote, Peter's declaration articulates a major paradox of the Christian
18:05life.
18:06Jesus's death occurred as a result of the plan and foreknowledge of God, but it was
18:11the free and sinful acts of human beings that executed that plan.
18:16It's God at work in this world.
18:17It was his plan.
18:18He initiated, he was bringing it forth, but he's using the evil of people to accomplish
18:23his plan.
18:25Don't forget that when evil enters into your life.
18:29I know it's not good, but yet all things work together for the good to those who love him,
18:35to those who are called according to his purpose.
18:40So Jews and lawless men, that's people without the law, without the Torah.
18:44So Jews and Gentiles are guilty of the death of Jesus.
18:48That means, guess what?
18:50All of us are guilty of the death of Jesus.
18:53There was a time in the middle ages that the Jews were persecuted because they alone were
18:57to hold the blame for killing the Messiah.
18:59So somehow the church thought it was good to persecute Jews in that day because they
19:03killed the Messiah.
19:04Maybe they didn't read Acts.
19:09We killed the Messiah, Jews and Gentiles alike, not just the Jews, but as Gentiles as well.
19:17The crucifixion was not a cosmic accident, but rather the predetermined plan of God.
19:23Remember he made a promise in the Garden of Eden.
19:26After they were kicked out, they were kicked out of the garden, he made a promise.
19:29One is going to come to crush the head of Satan.
19:32He promised them that redemption would come one day, it was his plan from the beginning.
19:37He carried it out and he brought his son into the world.
19:39Even the prophet Isaiah talks about this.
19:42Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with
19:46the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
19:52He was numbered with them, but he wasn't a transgressor himself.
19:56Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
20:00It's been God's plan from the beginning to bring the Messiah into the world, to bring
20:05redemption and salvation to us.
20:10Now Jesus, the leader, unto life by the virtue of his resurrection.
20:15This is a little longer section here, it's from 24 down to 36, he kind of concludes the
20:20sermon in 36.
20:22God raised him up, okay, so God had a plan, you killed him, God raised him up, losing
20:30the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
20:34And then Peter quotes a psalm, for David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before
20:39me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken.
20:43Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced, my flesh also will dwell in hope.
20:48For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or to Sheol, the underworld, or let your Holy
20:53One see corruption.
20:55You have made known to me the paths of life and you will make me full of gladness with
21:00your presence.
21:01Then he applies it, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David
21:06that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
21:10The people listening to him could point to where David's tomb was, oh yeah, that's his
21:13tomb right over there.
21:14He's still in the tomb, his body saw corruption.
21:16So it's obviously someone else he's talking about, not himself.
21:21Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he
21:25would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection
21:30of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor does his flesh see corruption.
21:36His body never corrupted, although it was in the tomb for three days and three nights.
21:39This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, the 12th.
21:45Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father
21:48the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and
21:53hearing.
21:54God is fulfilling his promise.
21:56He has exercised his power in raising Jesus from the dead and seating him at his right
22:00hand.
22:01For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord,
22:06sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
22:10Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him, that's
22:14Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
22:21So here we see God's power at work.
22:24God does not leave men condemned, but through his mighty power raised Jesus from the dead
22:29and seated him at his right hand, promising all who believe resurrection from the dead
22:34and life eternal by the power of God.
22:39It says, eluce the pangs of death, losing the pangs of death.
22:43That word is actually three other times used in the New Testament, always dealing with
22:48birth pains, a woman in labor, birth pains.
22:52And so someone has said that the tomb was a womb from which Jesus was born in resurrection
22:59glory, losing the pangs of death, pangs of childbirth.
23:04Tomb was a womb from which Jesus was born in resurrection glory.
23:11Verse 13, talking about the resurrection, associating it with his son.
23:16This he has fulfilled to us, their children by raising Jesus as also it is written in
23:21the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you.
23:24The idea of begotten again, idea of a child.
23:30So Peter now takes this and applies it to Jesus.
23:32It's not about David, David wrote it, but it was about somebody else that David was
23:36writing it about.
23:37He wasn't writing it about himself.
23:39The Psalm is a prophecy of David pointing to a descendant, one coming after him, who
23:43would sit on David's throne and be king on David's throne.
23:47He's pointing to that one that's coming.
23:49It wasn't about himself because we, look, his tomb was right there, his body's decayed
23:53already.
23:54It wasn't him.
23:55He was talking about somebody else.
23:56He was talking about one of his descendants that would come after him.
24:01It's exactly what the angel told Mary in Luke 1, and the angel said to her, do not be afraid,
24:09for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a
24:13son and you shall call his name Jesus.
24:16He will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give
24:20to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever
24:25and of his kingdom there will be no end.
24:28So this is the one that David was talking about, the Messiah that would sit on his,
24:32a descendant of him that would sit on his throne, ruling the house of Israel.
24:37Samuel talked about this, 2 Samuel, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with
24:42your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and
24:46I will establish his kingdom.
24:48He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
24:52And the psalmist said, the Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back.
24:58One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
25:01So he's looking forward and talking about the Messiah, one of his descendants that was
25:05to come.
25:07He will not leave him in the underground in Sheol or Hades, a place of the dead.
25:12He will not.
25:13He will be raised from the dead.
25:14His body will not see corruption.
25:17Death's power was overcome in the resurrection of Jesus.
25:23Power was broken.
25:26Jesus's humanity allowed him to experience physical death, however, his full deity and
25:31sinless life made it impossible for death to hold him.
25:35Death holds us sinners, but it can't hold one who is sinless.
25:39Death and sin go hand in hand, but the one who is sinless, death has no hold on that
25:43one.
25:44He cannot hold him.
25:45And believer, if you are in Christ today, death has no power over you.
25:49You do not need to fear death.
25:51You say, well, I don't like the mode of why I might die.
25:53Well, that may be the case, but death itself, we do not need to fear ever.
25:59He has conquered death.
26:01The resurrection is the Father's confirmation that the sacrificial work of Jesus was accepted
26:06as finished, never to be repeated again, a one-time sacrifice affecting all who will
26:12believe, bringing eternal life to them.
26:15The Father says, I approve.
26:17He offered his sinless blood into the heavenly tabernacle, giving us freedom and forgiveness
26:22of sins.
26:23I love that.
26:25In the old covenant, it ends with, and he shall remember your sins no more.
26:33God's not going to hold our sins against us because our Savior paid for our sins.
26:39David knew that God would overcome death through the Messiah.
26:42And then this last part here in 34 and 35 is Psalm 110.1, which is the most often quoted
26:49Old Testament passage in the New Testament, Psalm 110.1.
26:54And Jesus said that that refers to him, the Messiah, in Mark 12, that Psalm 110 points
27:00to the Messiah.
27:01And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, how can the scribe say that the Christ is
27:06the son of David?
27:07He himself in the Holy Spirit declared, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand
27:12until I put your enemies under your feet.
27:14David himself calls him Lord.
27:16So how is he his son?
27:18And the great throng heard him gladly.
27:20So the Messiah is associated with Psalm 110.1.
27:23That's the Messiah we're talking about.
27:25Exalted to the right hand of God, the right hand of power, of glory, of intercession for
27:30us.
27:32Then there's going to be a waiting time between the exaltation and the glorification of the
27:36Messiah and his return to punish the enemies.
27:39We're already in almost 2000 years before the second coming of Christ hasn't happened
27:43yet.
27:45He concludes the sermon basically in verse number 36.
27:49It's a conclusion of the sermon.
27:50He's summarizing and concluding it and basically they're standing there and I don't know if
27:55their mouth were open like, but they were definitely struck deeply in their soul.
28:01They were under emotional distress is what the text says of what they just heard.
28:08God is at work in their hearts at this point.
28:12Look at verse number 37.
28:15Now when they heard this, they were cut to heart and said to Peter and to the rest of
28:20the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
28:25And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized.
28:27Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will
28:32receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children, for
28:36all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord or God calls to himself.
28:41And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them.
28:44So he said other things that are not recorded here.
28:47He began to exhort them saying, save yourself from this crooked generation.
28:52So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3000 souls.
28:59God's promise.
29:01God is and God has spoken.
29:03His word is true and all of his promises are trustworthy.
29:06He says, believe the promise and you will have life.
29:09Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved.
29:12God is at work in the people in this deep sense of guilt comes in the, you ever been
29:17to a church that has an altar call?
29:19We don't have altar calls here.
29:20I mean, at the end of the service, you have an altar call.
29:21People come forward and they can pray.
29:24Peter didn't even offer an altar call.
29:26They have their own altar call.
29:27They're going, what are we going to do to get, can you imagine preaching and all of
29:30a sudden people just start rushing up here?
29:31What do I got to do to get saved?
29:33That would be great.
29:34That's what's happening here is the spirit of God is so at work at these people.
29:38They're so emotionally distressed in their heart.
29:40They're going, what are we going to do to be saved?
29:43They initiated the altar call.
29:46Verse 38 is an interesting verse.
29:48It literally, if the literal reading of it, it's kind of awkward in English, but the literal
29:52reading goes, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for slash
29:59on the basis of the forgiveness of your sins is the idea kind of get, it's kind of sounds
30:05like for forgiveness.
30:06I'm baptized and then because I'm baptized, I get forgiveness of sins.
30:09That's not what Peter's saying.
30:11He's using the word.
30:12It's a preposition in Greek.
30:13We don't need to go into that, but he's not using the sense that, oh yeah, baptism brings
30:17forgiveness of sins.
30:18That's not what he's saying at all.
30:22To repent, he tells them to repent in Greek means to change your mind, to think differently.
30:30He's calling on them.
30:31You thought he was a criminal hung on a cross, accursed by God.
30:35I'm asking you to think differently about this Jesus.
30:38He is who he claimed to be.
30:40He did what he said he was going to do.
30:41He fulfills the promise of the prophets in the Old Testament.
30:44You need to think differently of this Jesus.
30:46He's not accursed of God.
30:47He is blessed forever of God.
30:49Think differently, repent of your sins.
30:53William Baker wrote, repentance is then not an act of reformation on their part.
30:59Sinners are helpless to do this, but an acknowledgement of a sin of which they could never possibly
31:05make any correction except to admit its reality.
31:10Repent, repent, think differently of Jesus.
31:15Confess that you thought he was a criminal, confess that you thought he was accursed,
31:18confess that you thought he was a blasphemer, and believe that he is the Son of God crucified
31:25for you, buried, risen again, exalted to the right hand of the Father, and promising to
31:29come back again.
31:31Change your mind about him.
31:34So they were going to be baptized.
31:37Forgiveness of sins is the grounds for being baptized.
31:40It doesn't bring forgiveness of sins through baptism.
31:45Baptism is a public visible sign that a person is identified with Jesus and the promises
31:50of the new covenant.
31:51You can imagine to call on the Jews to be baptized.
31:55Number one, Jews don't get baptized.
31:57They have washings, but only the proselytes coming into the Jew would be baptized.
32:01But he's calling on the Jews to be baptized.
32:03In other words, be identified with this criminal, the one who hung on a cross and was called
32:08accursed.
32:09Be identified with him.
32:10Oh, I'm not sure I want that.
32:12Yeah, that's what we're asking you to do.
32:14Your baptism is identifying you with that one that you called accursed, the one you
32:18called that God had forsaken.
32:22You can imagine for a Jew, it would be tough to be baptized.
32:25Your family's going to disown you.
32:28You may lose your job in a Jewish community.
32:30It even happens today for those Jews who believe on Jesus Christ today, their families
32:34disown them.
32:36So to be identified with this one who was called accursed would be a big deal for a
32:40Jewish mind.
32:42Imar Dehan wrote, in the early days of the church, baptism was a declaration that the
32:49believer was definitely identifying himself with that group of people who were called
32:54Christians and who were despised and hated.
32:57To be a Christian meant something.
32:59To identify yourself with those who were called Christians meant persecution, maybe death.
33:04It meant being ostracized from your family, shunned by friends.
33:07And the one act which was the final declaration of this identification was baptism.
33:13As long as a man gathered with Christians, he was tolerated.
33:16But when once he submitted to baptism, he declared to all the world, I belong to this
33:21despised group.
33:23And immediately he was persecuted, hated and despised.
33:27In baptism, therefore, the believer entered into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.
33:32A person might be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and thus avoid unpleasantness and
33:36suffering.
33:37But once he submitted to public baptism, he had burned his bridges behind them.
33:41So you can imagine how big of a deal this was for Jews to be identified with that one
33:44that hung on the cross.
33:48Peter is just fulfilling what Jesus told him to do before he ascended.
33:51Remember in Matthew 28, this is what he told the disciples to do.
33:55Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father and of the Son
34:00and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
34:04And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
34:07He's just doing what Jesus asked him to do.
34:10Forgiveness, forgiveness is not God overlooking sin, but is about being graciously loosed
34:18from the penalty of sin by God's grace and God's mercy.
34:23He's not going to hold it against us anymore.
34:25That record of debt was nailed to the cross.
34:29When he pulls up our record of debt against him, it says paid in full by the blood of
34:32Jesus.
34:38This crooked generation, crooked generation, I don't know.
34:43He called his first century group a crooked generation.
34:46I think we live in a crooked generation too.
34:50Crooked generation was Old Testament language for a generation that is stubborn, rebellious,
34:54and not faithful to God, a crooked generation.
34:57And we call people to salvation, we call them out of a crooked generation for sure.
35:02Psalm 78 talks about this, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and
35:06rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not set fast, whose spirit was not
35:11faithful to God, a crooked generation.
35:16Those who received his word, in other words, those who heard his word and believed on his
35:20word were baptized.
35:21This excludes infant baptism.
35:23An infant cannot hear the word and follow and believe the word, an infant cannot do
35:28that.
35:29This is a believer's baptism.
35:30Children can be baptized because they understand, but an infant cannot understand, excludes
35:34infant baptism.
35:36And it appears in the New Testament, whenever I read the New Testament, immediately following
35:40salvation the believer was baptized.
35:43There's no waiting period, it's like that day they're baptized, on this day they're
35:46going to get baptized.
35:47There are places where we read in the New Testament they get saved and they're baptized
35:50on that day.
35:51And I'm thinking, you know, some of you here have been saved but never baptized.
35:55And now we're going to have in June, June 8th, an opportunity for you to be baptized.
35:58And there's a sign-up sheet right over there, you can sign your name up and say, I want
36:02to be identified with this despised group of people.
36:05I want to be persecuted and hated.
36:08No one smiled.
36:09One smile, okay.
36:12I want to be identified with Jesus.
36:14I want to say, I'm his, he has saved me.
36:17I want to submit to baptism.
36:223,000 people were saved, 3,000 people.
36:25Just what we talked about last week, the day of the giving of the law, 3,000 people died.
36:30Day of Pentecost, 3,000 people were saved.
36:32So this is great.
36:33But what is the Christian message?
36:36What did Peter put together here in this sermon that you and I can take away when we're talking
36:40to other people?
36:41What is the Christian message?
36:42Well, we start with God is, he exists, and God has spoken.
36:49You say, well, they may be an atheist.
36:51Yeah, maybe.
36:52But nevertheless, that's what we start at, God is, and God has spoken.
36:57And then we move on and we talk about Jesus.
36:59You and I have read the Gospels enough.
37:01We know what Jesus did.
37:02We know the works that he did and the miracles that he did.
37:05So we can talk about the person of Jesus, how God sent his son into the world.
37:09So we talk about the person of Jesus.
37:12And then we talk about it was God's plan, this salvation.
37:14Man didn't make this up.
37:15This was God's plan.
37:16And God intended for this to happen, that Jesus would die on the cross for us.
37:20So we talk about the plan of God.
37:22It was not some cosmic accident.
37:24And then we talk about the power of God, that God raised Jesus from the dead, exalted him,
37:29seated him in his right hand, sent the Holy Spirit down, the power of God at work in this
37:33world.
37:34And then we talk about the promises of God, the promise of God.
37:38And the promise of God, the promise of salvation also has to do with judgment.
37:42This is a part that you and I don't like to talk to people about, to help them to understand
37:47that their sins will be judged by a holy God unless they are forgiven by him.
37:52We don't like to talk about judgment, but we have to.
37:54Peter did it and Paul did it in Acts 17.
37:58And then we talk about repentance.
38:00You need to change your mind about Jesus.
38:02You thought one way about him, now you need to change your mind about him and think differently
38:06about him.
38:07You need to repent.
38:09So when we share the gospel, we try to understand the state of our audience.
38:13Where are they at?
38:15Do they have some sort of biblical background that we can call upon?
38:18Do they have no biblical background like in Acts 17 where you just have to start with
38:22God is and God has spoken?
38:24We have to know our audience that we're talking to.
38:26Cold calling is hard.
38:28It's better when you know the person so you can at least know where they're at to begin.
38:33So we always begin with God is, move to the person and life of the work of Jesus as resurrection,
38:38speak about the coming judgment against sin, and end with a call to repentance.
38:42That's basically what we're to do.
38:45And as we share the gospel message with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors, like in
38:49the book of Acts, the Lord will add day by day those who are being saved.
38:54He saves people.
38:55We don't.
38:57We are witnesses of what he's done.
38:59And we just tell people what he's done.
39:01Only God can save people.
39:02We leave it in his hands.
39:04He adds day by day those who are being saved.
39:06Let's pray.
39:07Father, we thank you.
39:09Peter gave us such a great example of how we can talk to other people about Jesus.
39:15That we have some sort of plan when we're talking to them, that we can talk about these
39:20things and we ask that you would open up their hearts, just like the Jews that day that were
39:24cut deeply, emotional distress, that they said, what am I going to do?
39:28How do we get saved?
39:29What should we do with this information?
39:32But act upon their hearts as we tell them about Jesus so that they can be saved as well.
39:37Call them to salvation, redeem them, save them.
39:40Thank you for letting us be your witnesses.
39:42And we're asking that you would day by day add to your kingdom, add to your family.
39:48We pray in Jesus' name.
39:49Amen.
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