The Church in Born (Part II)
The Church Is Born (Part II) | The Book of Acts | 2:1-41 | Pastor Duane Smets
This an expository sermon on Acts 2:1-41. It covers the very first sermon that Peter preached during the very first church service. This sermon was originally preached on February 19th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
February 19th, 2012
The Church Is Born (Part II) | Acts 2:1-41
I. The Last Days & The Promise: The Spirit’s Work (vs.14-21)
II. Jesus’ Life, Death & Resurrection: All God’s Doing (vs.22-24)
III. First Century Hangups & Ours: Scripture’s Weight (vs.25-36)
IV. Cut To The Heart: Gospel Responses & Effects (vs.37-41)
Introduction
Good morning. It’s good to see you all. If this is your first time visiting The Resolved Church, I want you to especially know we’re really glad you decided to worship with us this morning and we hope you enjoy worshipping our God with us today. My name is Duane…I’m one of four pastors here. Jesus is our head pastor and then there’s three others of us who do our best to oversee and care for Jesus’ flock.
We recently launched into a study through the book of Acts here on Sunday mornings. Last week we started in on Acts 2 which documents the very first church service in history. We looked at some of the supernatural events which took place on that special Sunday nearly two-thousand years ago. This week, we’re going to pay special attention to the sermon the Apostle Peter preached and what the response was.
We’ll read the text in just a minute but before I do I thought I’d start out with a word about why we preach sermons. It’s not simply because it’s what the church as always done. There’s more to it than that. Maybe you’ve never actually thought about…but sermons are actually a pretty odd and unique thing. We don’t really have anything like it in our culture.
You’ve got comedians who get up in front of people and talk but their whole goal is to entertain and make people laugh. You’ve got professors who lecture in colleges but their whole goal is to offer their specific expertise and information. You’ve got motivational speakers but their whole goal is to stir you up to be successful and happy. You’ve got business conferences and speakers of all kinds but the whole goal is to progress companies and products and make money.
Now obviously there may be some parallels with each of those things but sermons and preachers are unique because the whole goal is to take the Bible and its message and to make it known to a people who need to hear it and be changed. No other kind of public speaker is meant to be bound by a certain text and message where it’s their job to disseminate it to the people so their hearts might be changed.
The reason for sermons is because Pastors and preachers throughout the ages have been convinced that the only way we can truly come to know God, other than just knowing he exists, is by what he has said about himself through words in a book we call the Bible. Without it we are left to our imaginations and speculations.
In addition, on top of just coming to know things about God through reading and studying the Bible there is a sense in which through the Bible God reads us…and we need that. In Hebrews 4:12 one of the things the Bible gets called is a sword and it says that it is able to pierce us down to our hearts…and we need that.
The Bible has a way of showing us how much we need God…even when it’s something we’ve read and heard before and we need that over and over again. Our hearts easily and quickly get hard and Jeremiah 23:29 says the Word is like a hammer which breaks its rock. We need to be broken and be made soft.
The bulk of the text we’re looking at today is an old sermon from the Bible. The sermon ends and those who were there were pierced, that they were “cut to the heart.” I’ll be really honest and upfront with you today. It’s my goal and prayer today that we would be pierced by the Word this morning.
I am more convinced than ever that what we need is more of the Word. We don’t need more money, more stuff. We don’t need a better job. We don’t need better relationships. We don’t need this thing fixed or that thing fixed. What we really need is the Word.
We are seemingly becoming an increasingly Bible illiterate people driven more by our feelings than the Word and that is not okay. The goal of my life as a pastor and a preacher is to give you the Word and nothing but the Word. The Word, the Word, the Word. We need the Word to pierce us and to work in our hearts showing the greatness of our need and the glory of our savior. We need the Word.
So with that, let’s go ahead and read our text for today and ask God’s blessing on our time in it together. (read text and pray)
Alright, so it’s long passage…there’s a lot in there…but as you can see, it all goes together. Last week we dealt with the sort of crazy supernatural stuff that happened there in the beginning with the wind and the fire and the tongues and the congregational praising of God…this week we get Peter’s interpretation and explanation of it for us.
Some see and hear some of the crazy stuff that went down and suggest they’ve been partying a little too hard and are drunk. So Peter, stands up and begins by responding to this suggestion, almost seemingly starting things off with a joke. Verse 15 he says, “These people are not drunk, as you suppose…” it’s only 9am!
Drunkenness hasn’t changed much in the last two-thousand years. People normally get drunk at night and are hung over and asleep in the morning. 120 people wouldn’t be getting wild at 9am! They’re having church!
Now the fact that it’s Peter who stands up and speaks is a pretty big deal. We can’t spend much time on it…but if you know anything about Peter, he’s the dude who was always sort of putting his foot in his mouth and saying stupid stuff when Jesus was around. Most recently, just a couple months earlier he had told Jesus he would never leave his side even to the point of death and then Peter ended up denying Jesus three times while Jesus was on his way to the cross.
But one of the things I love about Peter is how God has grace on him. Jesus had told him in Matthew 16:18 that he had a special role to play in the founding and building of the church and then after Jesus rose he went to Peter personally and restored him three times and then commissioned him as a pastor telling him to feed the sheep.
Peter was a nobody fisherman from Galilee who had made numerous mistakes and yet God had grace on him, made him into a leader and used him mightily. It’s a good reminder for us…it doesn’t matter who you are or how you’ve blown it, God can use you.
We’ve got a new round of leadership development starting up in March and there are some of you who have been screw-ups in the past, but you’ve got potential and we want you…so think about applying.
So, back to the text Peter stand up and in a LOUD VOICE…remember there’s thousands of people there and no microphones…and he begins to preach. And he begins his sermon where every sermon ought to begin and that’s with a text from the Bible. He’ll actually end up preaching from three different passages. So let’s take a look at this first one and talk about “The Last Days & The Promise: The Spirit’s Work.”
I. The Last Days & The Promise: The Spirit’s Work (vs.14-21)
The passage he quotes is from the Old Testament book of Joel. We looked at part of it last week when we talked about this Pentecost being chiefly important because in it the Holy Spirit permanently came to dwell in all believers whereas for all of history up until that time the Spirit only came upon certain individuals temporarily for a specific task.
So what I want to point out today are the book ends of this passage from Joel, what it says in the beginning and what it says at the end…because all of it is the Spirit’s work. In fact, one of the things that is helpful in understanding the Godhead, the Father Son and Holy Spirit, is to understand their roles…God the Father oversees and rules over all, God the Son provides the work of redemption and God the Spirit is the active agent for all of God’s Work…whenever God does anything he does it in and through His Spirit.
With that, check out this phrase “the last days” here in verse 17 at the very beginning of the passage from Joel. It’s clear to Peter from what’s happened that the Spirit has come, thus it’s evidence that the “last days” are in effect. Now what’s that mean and why is it significant, these “last days”? Did it mean literally like the final hours or week before the end of the world?
No. We find this phrase “last days” in other places of the Bible like the first chapter of Hebrews, where there was the day and age of creation, the day and age of the Prophets and then the “last days” from the time God sent his Son and on. So last days is a reference to the final stage or chapter in the history or plan of salvation.
It’s a recognition that God is the one who has determined and ordered all of time and history and that there have been different segments or stages in the unfolding of his plan. Some call the various stages covenants, others call them dispensations…covenants is probably better since it’s actually a word in the Bible…but the point is there are specific ages of days that God has planned.
After the age of the Prophets, there was over 500 years of silence, no distinct Spirit work or activity until Jesus came and said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me…then here at this Pentecost we’re studying Jesus sends that Spirit on all his believers. Peter recognizes it and testifies that it is evidence of the last days which began with Jesus coming and end with his return.
Now why is recognizing it’s the last days important? Namely because of judgment. If you look at this passage from Joel, notice it starts out kind of nice with happy cool things…things like the Spirit on all, sons and daughters, men and women, visions, dreams and you’re like, “Yes, that’s good!” But then all the sudden the tone and tenor of it changes…all of sudden it turns real dark and starts talking about blood, fire, smoke and darkness in regards to the coming “day of the Lord.” Do you guys see that?
We’ve talked about it here at The Resolved on several different occasions that numerous passages in the Bible teach us that Jesus will return to earth one day and that when he does he will not come as a poor carpenter who seems merely human but he will come displaying all of his divine glory and come with all the army of heaven to completely vanquish all evil and the enemies of God.
The “day of Lord” …that phrase shows up all over the prophets and it’s not a good day for most, it’s a dark and scary day. Jesus himself in Matthew 24:29 that when he comes “the sun will be darkened, and the moon” and he says many will mourn. The day of the Lord will be a sad day. We will on one hand be delighted and overjoyed at seeing the Lord and on the other hand we will mourn as the sentence of hell us unleashed upon many.
And this brings us to the promise, the final phrase in this Joel quote that, “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Recognizing it’s the last days is important, mostly because of judgment…it’s a clarion call to get right with God before it’s too late.
Now some think that’s manipulative, scare tactic, unhelpful fire and brimstone preaching…things that shouldn’t be said. But here’s the thing…the blood and fire and smoke are real…it’s right there in verse 19. Hell, judgment and the wrath of God is real and the most unloving thing a person could ever do is not warn someone of the real consequence of unrepentant sin before God. It’s not wrong to run to God because you’re scared!
And that is the whole point of verse 21, to be scared and to call upon the name of the Lord so that you might be saved from judgment. You ought to be scared of God and the judgment of hell. That is a good thing. God is holy, which is both frightening and comforting. It’s frightening because we all know we deserve it and it’s comforting because we know that in God’s holiness he is good and has provided a way of salvation.
Now I’ve got a bone to pick here. Look closely at the end of verse 21. What tense is the word “saved” used in there in that sentence? Future! Which is the tense that salvation is spoke of most of the time in the Bible. The reason is because no one is saved yet! What are we saved from? The wrath and judgment of God. And when does that salvation happen? In the future. The wrath hasn’t come yet that we will be saved from.
So when we talk about so and so being saved or not saved it’s kind of silly talk. No one’s saved yet. There’s only a couple places the Bible talks about being saved right now and when it does, it’s talking about the promise of salvation. That we, if we believe in Jesus and have received his Spirit then we now have the hope or the promise that we will be saved one day when the wrath comes. So we possess the promise of salvation but we’re not saved yet. It just bugs me when people say they’re saved…in my head I’m always like, “No you’re not! No one’s saved yet!”
Alright, enough of me being a jerk. Here’s what I’m really concerned about. I think there are a number of you who may think you’re a Christian but you’re really not and I’m scared for you. When it comes down to it you know you’re not right with God. And I’m afraid that one day it will be too late.
I want to beg you and plead with you…call upon the name of the Lord, call upon the name of the Lord, call upon the name of the Lord before it’s too late. Because there is a hell and the judgment of God will come and you will not get away with living in sin and rebellion against God. So call upon the name of the Lord I beg you. Do it today!
Maybe you’re like, “Well, what does that mean? Who is the Lord really and how can he save me?” I think Peter anticipated that response as well, which is why his sermon turns from this point on to focus on who Jesus is and what he did in order to save his people. So let’s move on to our next point, “Jesus’ Life, Death & Resurrection: All God’s Doing.”
II. Jesus’ Life, Death & Resurrection: All God’s Doing (vs.22-24)
In verse 22 Peter starts his second point by making a strong plea for the consideration of who Jesus really is and what he accomplished. He says, “hear these words” listen! And then he unpacks in three distinct, successive moves, exactly who Jesus is.
He starts out by identifying him as “Jesus of Nazareth.” By beginning there he calls attention to the fact that Jesus was a real human person from a real place. That title, “Jesus of Nazareth” emphasizes the humanness of Jesus.
But unlike all humans who have ever walked the face of this earth Jesus’ life was not marked by sin and failure and instead was one full of “mighty works and wonders and signs” which Peter here says “attested” or evidenced that he was of God. These mighty works, wonders and signs surely cover how in Luke’s previous book written before Acts, the Gospel of Luke, how the people were constantly amazed by his teaching, miracles and character.
Then look at this. Notice right there in the middle of verse 22 he says that “God did (them…the mighty works and signs) through him.” So ultimately Jesus teaching, miracles and sinlessness was all a product of God’s work in and through him. It was God doing it. Jesus life…he lives the perfect life both sinless and selflessly serving God and His people. It’s the life we’ve all failed at and deserve judgment for…but Jesus did it!
But what happened to Jesus then? Judgment is for sin…Jesus doesn’t sin. Yet, verse 23, Jesus is “delivered up…crucified…and killed.” Sinless Jesus dies a sinners death. Why?
What is the answer of verse 23? God did it! An amazing verse. Look at what it says…”according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” he had Jesus crucified and killed. Who killed Jesus? It wasn’t ultimately the lawless Roman soldiers, it wasn’t ultimately the Jewish religious leaders, ultimately it was God…God killed Jesus. God did it!
This verse is explicit about this…God sovereignly rules over and determines the decisions and actions of men. How? According to his “definite plan” and “foreknowledge.” Those two words going together here speak volumes about how God operates.
His definite plan is his decree. The Bible teaches that God has determined the day every person is born and the day (Acts 17:26) and the day every person will die (Heb 9:27). It’s why God is called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end throughout Scripture…because he has determined every single event that ever has or ever will take place from beginning to end. He has predestined it all.
And because he has determined and decreed everything, he foreknows exactly what will take place. He can see it. Just like Psalm 139:4 says, before we even speak a word with our tongue, he knows exactly what it will be. God doesn’t just know possibilities like some have foolishly taught…he determines and knows all the exact details and decisions of men. Any other view is merely philosophy, not Scripture. You have no further to look than our verse right here, Acts 2:23, though it’s all over the Bible.
Some of you really need to re-think your notions of a so called “free-will” and whether that’s Biblical. But that’s a discussion for another day. If you want to look into it more check out the article “Pressing Into Predestination” on our website for a bunch of resources (http://www.theresolved.com/301/pressing-into-predestination/).
The main thing here is God killed Jesus. Which by the way is the universal view of Scripture. Isaiah 53:10 says it was “the will of the LORD to crush him.” God crushed him and had him delivered up on the cross. God did it.
But that was not the end of the story. Before you start to call God evil and unethical you’ve got to read verse 24. God raised him up. God in his sovereign will and power to make sure his desired outcome took place, saw to it that what he hates, murder…happened in order to accomplish his greater purpose of defeating sin and securing eternal life for souls doomed to judgment.
Verse 24 is just as clear as the previous two verse. Just as surely as it was God enabling Jesus’ sinless, selfless and sign filled life…and just as surely as God had Jesus killed…just as surely, God raised him up!
The point of each of these three things Peter addresses, Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is that God did it all. It was all God’s doing. The last days began. The day of the Lord’s judgment awaits. But God stepped in to do something about it. God initiated and put in motion a plan through Jesus so that people might be saved.
The Gospel is a God-centered Gospel. If you look at the Gospel as something we do to save ourselves…like pray a prayer or be a good person or deciding to become a Christian, you don’t have the right Gospel. The Gospel is something that God did from beginning to end. It was all him! Some of you have never understood the gospel because you’ve thought it is about what we do and you’ve never seen it as all the work of God.
This is integral to Peter’s preaching of the Gospel here. He goes out of his way to point out that it was God who did it all every step of the way. Do you have a God-centered Gospel or a you-centered gospel?
We need to move on to our next point…but really ask yourself this morning…do I really believe in the true Gospel? Do you believe that God did something earth shattering and heart breaking in order to deal with your sin? Or is your view of the Gospel just something else?
May God help us to truly know, understand and believe the true Gospel…that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures…and was raised the third day (1 Cor 15:3-4).
Well, after Peter points out that God raised Jesus from the dead, he anticipates a second objection from the crowd. He realizes that hearing about Jesus, a human person dying and rising again from the dead is going to be a big pill to swallow. So he moves into a third line of reasoning demonstrating the necessity of Jesus rising and the Bible’s affirmation of it.
We won’t go through every detail in verses 25-36 but what I do want to do is for us to talk about why this was a tough and important issue back then and why it still is for us today. So let’s talk about “First Century Hangups & Ours: Scriptures Weight.”
III. First Century Hangups & Ours: Scripture’s Weight (vs.25-36)
What Peter ends up doing here is citing two different passages from the Bible, Psalm 168:8-11 and Psalm 110:1. And he actually does some fairly complicated and explicit exegesis. I mean he gets down and dirty in his sermon, not just citing the Bible passages but working through their exact words and reasoning.
In order to try and simplify things for us a bit, what helps is to recognize that there are two main issues Peter is trying to address. The Puritan preachers were well known for trying to anticipate what their hearers knee-jerk reactions and objections would be…and that’s what we got Peter doing here. He knows people are going to have issue with both the idea of someone rising from the dead and the concept of an afterlife and he knows people are going to have a hard time with conceiving of and believing that Jesus is in fact God, the Lord.
Not a whole lot has changed has it? Those are still some of the biggest barriers and obstacles people have with Christianity. Yet at the same time they are the two things long for…a way to beat death and a divine hero to save us.
If any of you watched the Grammy’s last week? If so maybe you caught Foo Fighter’s performance of their new song “Walk.” The song starts out expressing a longing and waiting for life and experiencing estrangement and difficulty. Then mid-way through David Grohl breaks into this explosion saying “I’m on my knees and praying…I never want to die, I never want to die, I never want to die.”
It’s really the cry of our hearts…that God would do something, send someone to give us life that we might escape the pain, sorrow and finality of death.
Now in our culture…most people don’t live under any book of authority or belief. Everyone kind of has their own belief system and they pick and choose from whoever as their authorities or experts. Oddly, music artits like David Grohl or other pop figures are the popular prophets of our day.
But back in the first century in the setting of the chapter we are looking at today, everyone there was a Jew. Notice at the beginning in verse 14 he address them as “men of Judea” and then in verse 22 “Men of Israel.” Peter is talking to Jews who were a people bound to the Bible…obligated to believe and follow what it said.
So rather than approaching an objection to the resurrection and deity of Jesus like we might today…all he does is go to Scripture to demonstrate that the Scriptures prophecy and prove that God would send a divine messiah to die and rise. If Scripture did in fact teach it, then it was true.
Let’s just look at what he says real quick. In verses 25-28 he quotes Psalm 168 and then in verses 29-33 he makes three main points from that text…there’s more than three but the three core points are: (1) It talks about one whose flesh would not see corruption but instead be raised up to life. (2) That one is not David because David died and was buried and in the tomb. (3) The Psalm must be speaking of Jesus, who is not only David’s descendant but actually accomplished exactly what the Psalm prescribes or prophesies.
The second verse Peter quotes is from Psalm 110 which he uses to emphasis the claim that Jesus is in fact Lord, the God of the Bible, who sits on the throne in heaven. Earlier we talked about God’s sovereign rule over all that happens. The picture of God throughout biblical history has been one of God as a king who rules on high. For example, in Isaiah 6, Isaiah the prophet has a vision of God seated on the throne and angels cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
So it is no small thing for Peter to say in verse 34-35 that Jesus ascended into the heavens sitting at the right hand of God, meaning sitting on a throne with his feet resting upon the enemies of the earth as though they were a footstool.
Both passage Peter quotes are hugely significant in showing that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah, that Jesus is God and that he defeated death by rising God. And then comes verse 36. Verse 36 is the kicker.
Up to this point Peter’s argument from Scripture is in the least pretty convincing. But perhaps somewhat theoretical…but verse 36 brings it home, flips the tables and makes it personal. Let me re-read it, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
In one sentence Peter just condemned the entire audience as being guilty of crucifying the Messiah who was God himself. Don’t get confused by the word “made” there…This isn’t teaching adoptionism, that God adopted Jesus into the Godhead and made him God because of what he did. “Made” is being used here in the sense of made it known, or declared for all.
The guilt of crucifying Jesus is clear. Those last three words are gut wrenching, “whom YOU crucified.” YOU. Everyone was complicit and guilty. Why? Maybe some of the soldiers who did the crucifying were there. Maybe some where there who had chanted “crucify him, crucify him.” Maybe some were there who had just watched but not said anything and let it all happen.
But I don’t think any of those things are what Peter means when he says, “whom YOU crucified.” I don’t think he is trying to point the finger and place blame. He already put that all on God earlier. No, I think Peter is getting at something deeper here. I think what he means it was our sin which took Jesus to the cross. Colossians 2:14 says that in order to deal with the debt of wrath we owe to God, the judgment we deserve for our sin, that Jesus nailed its record of debt to the cross.
Sometimes we sing that hymn, “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us.” One of the verses captures this sentiment perfectly. It says, “Behold the man upon the cross, my sin upon His shoulder…Ashamed I hear my mocking voice, call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there, until it was accomplished.”
Have you ever got that personal with the gospel? To where you know and are able to say…it was my sin. It was me. I’m the guilty party. I crucified him. Are you able to say that? Do you realize the depth of your guilt before God?
When the gospel hits you like that what happens next in the story of our text is no surprise. So let’s look at our final point for this morning, “Cut To The Heart: Gospel Responses & Effects.”
IV. Cut To The Heart: Gospel Responses & Effects (vs.37-41)
Verse 37, “When they heard this they were cut to the heart.” It’s a vivid picture and I can’t think of a better way to describe the feeling of realizing your own guilt before God. “Cut to the heart.” Literally stabbed with a knife to the soul.
And then those most beautiful thing happens…they cry out for salvation. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved and they call out and respond according to Peter’s instructions. Peter’s instructions are simple, short and to the point, so we won’t spend a lot of time on them even though we could.
He tells them two ways to express their faith in Jesus. First, repent. To repent is literally a turning around and going a whole different direction with your life. It involves not just feelings of sorrow but follow through in action. It’s part of the reason why I said earlier some of you may not be Christians…because when you knowingly and willingly break God’s law without repentance that’s sign you don’t really believe. Repentance is follow through.
Second, he tells them to be baptized. Baptism sometimes can be made too complicated. It’s simply a ceremony with water, which has always been seen as a cleansing agent. Here it used as a physical testimony and confession of belief in Jesus’ person and the work he did to deal with sin, so that people could be forgiven which cleanses them inside.
Receiving forgiveness is to be given something because the other person paid the price, they absorbed the pain and penalty in order to receive you back into fellowship. That’s forgiveness. It always costs. So forgiveness of sins from Jesus is acknowledging he paid the price for sin to God on the cross.
The result is the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is God himself…Jesus, by his Spirit coming to dwell in our hearts through faith. Then the day of the Lord becomes not a day of judgment but a day of salvation, when we get to see the Lord face to face and be received into his glory.
After he gives them these instructions he states these wonderful words which are probably my favorite in the entire passage, “The promise (the promise of forgiveness for sin through repentance and belief in Jesus) is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Oh, how I love that line! I love it because we are the far off ones and it tells us that what Jesus did counts for us too who believe…that there is hope for me…and not just for us but for our children. Which if you have kids, you understand how precious knowing that is…that our kids are part of not just our physical family but the covenant family of faith in Jesus.
This is actually a verse which ought to prompt dads to at least consider baptizing their children regardless of their age. We leave it up to the head of the house here at The Resolved Church to decide whether they want to baptize or dedicate their kids…but this verse is the reason why I had both my daughters baptized when they were babies.
Without jumping into the debate I’ll just say, no matter what side you land on, neither side believes baptism saves you…baptism is merely an outward sign that you belong and are part of the family of God. And regardless of when you do it, we need to be faithful and recognize that there is a call here for parents to see to it that their children are to be part of the faith and be baptized.
Now, don’t let that side track you too much because here’s the cool thing that happened on that wonderful Pentecost day. Verse 41, three-thousand souls, which likely did not count the women and children because the were counted under the male head of the house…so it could have been upwards of 10,000 people who were baptized as Christians that day.
So amazing! Just incredible. What a day! And from this point on in the book of Acts we’ll continue to see more and more people become Christians as the gospel is preached, spread across the land and churches are planted.
I think when we read here what happened, the way it’s put together and written here is meant for us to be wowed by the result of so many people coming to Christ. When we read of that result it exhilarating and exciting. It’s the climax of the chapter. A greater miracle than even the wind, fire and tongues that took place in the beginning. Thousands came to Christ and were baptized!
And I think there’s a second, perhaps more subtle intent here…because I can’t help but think Luke, the human author here means for us to long to see that happen in our context where we’re at. It’s the theme of the book of Acts…receiving power from the Spirit to be witnesses for Christ with the result that people become Christians. And I think we’re meant to want to see people come to Christ too.
I tell you what…I really long to see people become Christians. If you’re here today and you haven’t become a Christian yet I want you to know I’ve been praying for you, that you would come to know Jesus as your savior.
I think about and pray for souls all the time. There is so much we do and so much effort we put into so many things. And many of those things are good and we ought to do them. But at the end of the day I just want to see people come to know Jesus. I’m a pastor but I’m an evangelist first. It’s my heart and prayer that at The Resolved Church we would always regularly be seeing people become Christians and be baptized.
In just seven weeks it will be Easter and we’re planning on having a great service and hopefully we’ll be baptizing a bunch of people. If you’re a Christian and have never been baptized or you became one recently…this is an awesome opportunity to declare your faith publicly and be baptized. Just let us know by either filling out one of those slips in your bulletin, or talking to one of us after service or signing up online…but let’s get you baptized.
“Those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” May God add many to our number this year as well.
Conclusion
Well, let’s conclude this morning. We’ve covered quite a bit of ground. Usually, I’ll kind of go back through each of our main points and give us some ways where we can apply each of them to our own hearts and lives.
But today all I want to do is say is that the gospel is all that matters. Our sin is real and so is judgment and the coming day of the Lord. But God made a way. He sent his son Jesus to live, die and rise for our sin. Our sin put Jesus on the cross for sure…but he willingly went there and God the Father planned and determined it out of his love for us.
So today as we prepare our hearts to receive the Lord’s Supper where we remember and receive Jesus body and blood shed on the cross for sin, in these elements of bread and wine…as we prepare ourselves there just three simple things I want to call us to.
One, let’s be cut to the heart. The more you realize your guilt and your need for a savior the more beautiful and sweet the gospel is to your soul. Today, I stand before you a weak man, I am a sinner and there is nothing good in me. But Jesus is good and he died for me and that’s why I love him so. So let’s be cut to the heart and have the love for our savior renewed.
Two, I know there are some of you who are not really Christians or at least you haven’t been. I’ve been praying that today you would be cut to the heart and realize that and that you would respond. If that’s you this morning I want to urge you to call upon the Lord, to turn from sin and to repent and to turn to Christ. The way we express that here is simply by coming forward to Jesus’ table with the rest of us. And if that’s happening with you today, after you receive communion come to the back and let one of us pray with you.
Three, I want everyone here who is a Christian and receives the elements today to pray and ask our Lord to save souls in our city and in our church. Verse 39 in our text today affirms that “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” will assuredly put their faith in Jesus and become Christians. So let’s ask our Lord to call ones to himself today. Make that part of your prayer when you partake today…pray for your friends, your neighbors, your family members, your co-workers and people you don’t even know…pray that they will come to know Jesus.
Are you guys in this with me? Alright, let’s pray.
