This evening we continue our study through the book back, so the season we find ourselves in Acts 2, following the events that took place on that great day of Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out upon God's people and they began to speak in tongues. We understand this to be speaking in various languages, different languages, proclaiming the message of God, that God has come to save sinners. The glorious work of God. And here we find in our passage this evening, Peter's sermon, in light of these events that have come to pass.
So before we read God's word, let us pray together. The Lord I do ask for a hand of blessing upon us that you would help us to believe and to know that your word is true and that you sanctify us in truth. Where we pray that you indeed give us a greater measure of your spirit, that you would draw near to us in grace, with mercy, and Lord that we would rejoice in Christ. Or it would help us to see Him clearly give us eyes of faith.
And I pray now, see these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Again, this is God's word, getting an Acts chapter two in verse 14. But Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders and the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And then shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Then in Israel, here are these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man that tested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as who yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of all his men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For 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. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your holy one see correction. You have made known to be the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence.
Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, and he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see correction. This Jesus, God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter, and the rest of the apostles brothers, what shall he do? And Peter said to them, repent and adaptize every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.
And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls for him to himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying save yourselves from this cricket generation. So those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day, about 3,000 souls.
The grass-witters and the flower falls, the word of our God stands forever and ever. Thanks be to God. I ask you a question this evening, what kind of message do we have here before us? What kind of sermon is Peter preaching?
Because surely, on one hand, Peter is seeking to comment on the events that have come to pass and have taken place, that the Spirit has been poured out upon God's people, that this moment that had been prophesied, not only by the Prophet Joel, but other prophets before him, this moment had come to pass, where God is bringing life to his people. He's seeking to make sense of why those would be speaking in tongues. I think on another hand, what we find is that Peter's aim is not so much for the mind or the intellect, trying to explain the events that have come to pass. But it appears as if his aim is more so the heart rather than the head.
You can make a case that this is the first evangelistic sermon preached in the New Testament, at least one preached after the coming of the Holy Spirit, of the apostolic age, so to speak. Here Peter speaks to the hearts of the audience. And we've read and we've seen that it was effective, that the Spirit has indeed brought to life, and the Spirit is acting and the Spirit is moving, and He is bringing people from death into marvelous life. But when we look at this, we see this evangelistic sermon broken down really to three parts.
First, I want you to see that Peter here is proclaiming to his audience in Jerusalem, that there is but one story, there is but one story. How does Peter begin? Well, he begins with the Scriptures. In fact, he begins with the Old Testament, and specifically the prophet, Joel, as he would reveal this event that has taken place to be rooted in Old Testament prophecy and promise.
Right? That God would pour out his spirit. And so Peter looks through the lenses of the Scriptures to understand these events that come to pass. At the time of Pentecost, the Old Testament would have been the Scriptures that influenced Peter's own understanding of this redemptive historical event unfolding.
For the New Testament books had not yet been written. And so he sees what is taking place, and he knows God's word, and here, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, interprets the words of Old to have come to pass. Specifically through the prophet Joel here, surely through the teachings of Jesus as well. For Christ promised that one would come, that Helper would come, that he must go, that the comforter must come to be with us.
And it's here that we should be reminded that all Peter and the other apostles have at this point, is the Old Testament. And surely they sat under the teachings of Jesus, who is and was the revelation of God, right the word of God made flesh. But we understand too that even Jesus expounded upon the Old Testament. It's what he taught and what he preached and what he revealed in himself to be the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament taught.
In fact, Luke tells us at the end of his gospel, that Jesus spent his earthly days post-resurrection instructing the disciples saying, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. To the gospels through though the apostles lived it, had not been written nor organized, nor distributed yet. Paul had not written his letters. And by this point when Peter's preaching, he had not even been saved.
He had not yet been born again. He had not received this power of the Holy Spirit to regenerate and to bring to life. John had not yet written nor received the revelation from Jesus Christ, which we understand closes the canon for us. Peter had not yet written nor James.
And while this may seem like one of those facts that associate Ford and simple that it almost need not be said, I want you to see that when we look to the scriptures, we see but one story, one story. And we ask, why is that important? Why is that important? Some of you may know that I play guitar.
I assure you in a very basic way. And the guitar is very susceptible to being out of tune. Perhaps other string instruments are also equally susceptible to being out of tune. And you know in out of tune guitar when you hear it.
There are six strings on your average guitar tune to the standard tuning of EADGBE. And when those strings are tightened or loose to vibrate at the right pitch and you press your fingers on the right strings or the right frets, it can make an absolutely beautiful noise. But when those strings aren't tightened or loose and they vibrate at the wrong pitch and you press your fingers on the wrong strings or the wrong frets, I can assure you it makes a colorful noise. But when we talk about the scriptures being one story, it's much like those strings functioning in tune or in harmony.
There are maybe a number of instruments playing in an orchestra at the right key or in the right key at the right time in the right tuning. But we have this beautiful work being revealed to us in the scriptures. And this beautiful work that is being revealed to us in the scriptures reveals to us the glory of God. Think about this church, through every work of history, through every work of law, through every work of poetry, of prophecy and genealogy, among every promise made, every judgment enacted, every act of mercy that had been received, spanning time and place and at various points in Israel's history, in every gospel and epistle, it all works perfectly, an imperfect harmony to reveal to us the glory of God.
When it comes to the story of redemption, nothing is out of tune. And on some level, as Peter brings Joel's prophecy to bear upon his audience, he is showing them that the scriptures are saturated with redemption, precisely because they are saturated with Christ. In the Prophet Joel reflecting upon God's judgment, even as it was seen in light of an invasion of a locusts, Joel prophesies a day to come, whatever prophets and even Joel himself would call the day of the Lord, in which God's judgment would be poured out on all people. And surely Joel, with the rest of the Old Testament prophets, speak of that coming day when Christ comes again.
But Peter's point here is that God's judgment has been poured out. It has been poured out. God's wrath has been poured out on the sun on our behalf. And it's in Jesus that we find Joel's promise of restoration and life as the spirit is poured out.
God's wrath being poured out for Christ and in death and the spirit being granted to us for life. And so there is instruction for us as the New Testament Church, that preaching and reading and studying of God's Word, whether we do it here at the church or at home in the privacy of our own bedrooms, that it's not only good and right, but both the Old and New Testaments have been given to us as one story to teach us and to reveal to us the glory of Christ our need for a Savior and the work of God's redemption for his people and applying such grace to us through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. We are not just New Testament Christians, but we are whole Bible Christians who understand that we read the New Testament as the Old fulfilled and the Old Testament as the New promised. And so when we come on Sunday evenings or Sunday mornings and we settle into our pews and we open up our bulletins and we look in our Bibles and we submit our hearts and our minds and our hands to God's Word, whether from the Old or New, we know that we are in good company.
In fact, we participate in something very old, in ancient something apostolic, as we look to hear the Word read, preached and applied and explained. I did not hear it in this text, that there is still yet a prophecy to come to pass. We consider last time as we look to the book of Acts, the pouring out of the Spirit and the miraculous proclaiming of the mighty works of the Lord and foreign languages, but Peter goes on to Quajole and shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so what Peter does here is he listens closely for the melody of the Scriptures, that line of music that is traced to like a whole of the song.
He finds that thread that runs from Genesis to Revelation that God makes the way of salvation known to sinful and fallen humanity. And so it is that we find God's Word applied and directed towards the hearts of this audience gathered in Jerusalem. There is still yet prophecy that has yet been fulfilled. God's Word will go forth and then women and children will be saved.
This is part of what the prophecy that Peter is expounding for us teaches us. Is that salvation is coming? Salvation has come and men and women will be saved. And yet if I'm honest with you this evening, if there's one thing that preaching Sunday after Sunday morning after Sunday evening can teach us and teach any pastor.
It's not Ted and I don't have much to offer you apart from Christ. We have no better message to bring you but the good news that God saves sinners through his son Jesus who lived and died and was raised again that we might live in him, die to ourselves and to our sin and be raised with him in glory. Peter's message of salvation is all I have and all we have to offer you. Now surely we look at this through different lenses and we look at Christ and Genesis and Christ and Revelation and Christ and every book in between.
The preaching so often feels like sanctifying repetition. Looking at Christ from the same Christ from different ways but Jesus is the gem of redemption isn't he? And we have no better way to spend our time and to consider our efforts then to look upon Christ and to gaze upon his beauty and to dwell and behold every facet of the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ. For he is the only one who saves.
And that's what we find at our second point this evening is that Peter teaches us and shows us that yes there is one story but this one story shows us that we have but one Savior. One Savior like a microscope or magnifying glass Peter brings to view Jesus for whom this prophecy of Joel was ugly. Salvation was promised and so Peter gives us a close up look at the Savior who himself is saved. What I want you to see from our passage this evening is that Christ should be central to our worship that he should always be central to the reading of the Scriptures to our preaching of the Word to our praying to our observance of the sacraments to our singing.
What do we do on Sunday mornings and evenings but come to worship Christ? And while it should be noted that Peter's sermon as it is given here is not exhaustive meaning he doesn't tell us everything there is to say about Christ and our Savior. Even Luke tells us in verse 40 that with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them. But Peter here does tell something about Christ.
In fact he gives us a brief outline of the gospel message as Christ is the one who brings redemption and salvation. First we need to see that Peter speaks of Jesus' identity. He is Christ who was made known. Maybe it's not so surprising here that Peter begins with establishing that Jesus is God.
I don't know if you've ever heard of the news recently but Subway has been in some legal trouble especially over the last few years regarding to how they advertise certain ingredients that they use in their sandwiches. They've been taken over to court most recently over one of their menu items and there's a plaintiff that alleges that there is in fact no tuna, no actual fish, nothing that can be considered fish in their tuna fish that they offer at their restaurants. But rather it's a mixture or concoction of substances that make it look like, taste like, feel like and smell like tuna. Apparently this case is backed up by lab data and while they have not yet released the ingredients or the findings, I don't know about you but I'm not going to wait to find out until I go to Subway again.
But the point is that we are so often concerned with what is real. We want something to not be a knock-off, not be an imitation. We want the real deal. We feel duped and betrayed when we consider something to be authentic and find out that it is in fact fake.
And when we or when Peter considers our need for a savior what he does and shows us is that anything less than authentic, anything less than the real deal means condemnation and certain death for you and for me. We may be offended by someone like Subway claiming that tuna fish isn't tuna fish or that they're red isn't really red but we are hopeless if Christ is not God. If he is not divine we are people of most to be pity. Paul tells us or in the words of Paul.
Peter states that Jesus of Nazareth, right identifying where he was from, is a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. And what Peter is telling us here is that every time Jesus healed, every time he cast out a demon, every time he performed a miracle and established his power over the natural world, it was all to underscore and confirm who Jesus was. He was attested that Jesus would come and be known as the Christ, the coming Messiah. God made it clear for us.
Jesus showed forth himself in all his divine power. But the point here is one to show forth the glory of Christ but it's also to serve as the foundation and really the grounds of Peter's case against his audience. Their complicity in their guilt and putting Jesus to death. What does Peter tell them but you are without excuse?
You can't throw your hands up and shift blame saying we didn't know Jesus was God. Peter tells us he made it clear. God attested that he was. He says you yourselves know this.
And so at least he first that Peter tells us that of Jesus' identity, right, that he is the Christ who was made known. But second he points us to his death. In fact that he was appointed to die. And much like a Christmas gift chosen and bought and wrapped and tied tight with the bow with our name on it, Jesus was given as a gift.
He was the Christ. And what Peter reveals to us is what we understand about the coming of Jesus even as we celebrate the birth of Christ during this Advent season is that his life, his birth, his death, his resurrection, that it was not planned be. The God did not need to call some divine audible or alter his divine plan. That the death of Jesus was not an accident or unintended consequence of God sending his son.
Or even more so, the Lord is not playing jazz. He's not rithing and jamming. He's not responding and reacting to the music around him making it up as he goes. But Peter says this Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
God knew what he was doing. You see this language is very precise. And Peter is intending to make sure that we know that the gospel is no accident. But rather it's a fulfillment of a promise made a very, very long time ago.
In fact an eternity. We understand that even before the work of creation our trying God made covenant that we call this the covenant of redemption which the scriptures describe as the eternal counsel of God or the foreknowledge of God or are being elected before the foundations of the world. And yet what we find summarized in the scriptures is this eternal willingness of Christ to be the Redeemer, to be our Savior. And the author of the book of Hebrews puts it this way as he reflects upon our Savior.
He says therefore since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. And let us with endurance run the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, note this, who is the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and the seated at the right hand of the throne of God. You see the author of Hebrews anchors are running the race or living in this life and faithful obedience with Christ's joy in redeeming his people of his going to the cross.
And we see that in this eternal triune conference, Jesus joyfully and willily says, I will redeem them. Would it be that we would never doubt the love that Christ has for us? Right? This love is not temporary.
It's not reactionary. It's not something less, but it is something eternal. It is according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. And so will it to the cross and we see just how God so loved the world.
That he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Christ died for sinners. Christ died for you and he died for me. And yet Peter makes it very clear that while Jesus went joyfully and willily to the cross, it did not erase the guilt of God or the guilt of those who put him to death.
Our God's sovereignty does not negate our culpability. Did you hear the charge? Right? You crucified, killed by the hands of lawless men.
Right? This Jesus whom you crucified. This is an interesting charge because you understand is that those in the audience may or may not have been present with those crowds that shouted crucify him. Crucify him.
They'll give us Barabbas. And until we understand the reality of our guilt and sin in Adam, like how Stuart Townsend writes it in the modern hymn, How Deep the Fathers Love For Us. He says, we hold the man upon a cross, my sin upon his shoulders. Assamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scuffers.
It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished. And we don't understand this verse to imply something that something other than Christ's own will led him to the cross.
But it's a call for us to know and to recognize that we are guilty in sin. And it is for our sin that Christ died. This for your sin that Jesus went to cross, it's for your guilt that Christ was crucified. It was for your transgression that our Messiah atoned is for your life that Jesus was but a death, becoming sin for you that you might become the righteousness of God.
And so Peter speaks not only of Jesus' identity, but he speaks of his death, but he also speaks of his exaltation. He speaks of his exaltation that we might live. We see that Peter doesn't stop with his death. The good news of the gospel was that Christ did not stay dead.
No, but no death does not have a hold on Jesus. And what's interesting here is that Peter takes time to walk us through how the Old Testament even promised the resurrection. He quotes Psalms 16 and 110. Here's his words in his own interpretation.
David he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ. And he was not abandoned to Hades. Nor did his flesh the correction. This Jesus, God raised up and of that we are all witnesses.
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit that he has poured out this that you are yourselves are seeing and hearing. If Peter makes sure that his audience that you and me do not think Jesus to be left in the grave, for all men die. But to break the power of sin and death, losing the pains of death because it was not possible to be held by it. Peter shares the full hope of the gospel message.
Christ was put to death. And that is Jesus who is raised again. You see the language here is that of triumphed victory. Of revealing the glory of Christ being raised again and the promised Lord that David foresaw exalt in the heavens ruling and reigning.
This is not only to strike wonder in all but fear. In this last phrase Peter says should really strike terror into the hearts of his audience and should cause us to pause because it's twofold. We are guilty and crucified Christ. And yet this very Christ we crucified has or was raised again in glory.
Meaning he lives even today. Let all of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified. In an earthly sense there's a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. When you strike at a king you must kill him.
With the popular version of something like if you shoot for the king you better not miss. I think what Peter is doing here is proclaiming to Israel that this Christ, this king whom you crucified has been made Lord. In Christ it's Jesus who sits upon the throne from where God pours out his wrath against sin and wickedness. What hope to those who are guilty have become to our last point is that we find one story one savior and yet there's only one way that we might have such hope today.
And Peter points them to that is to believe upon Christ. When I was in Dylan I had one of the most terrifying experiences of my life really the most terrifying experience of my life. I took a youth on retreat to Bryson City in North Carolina and took a small group of those students River Tooting. If you have ever been River Tooting but whenever I think of River Tooting I think of wide calm waters leisurely floating down a river but here after many much rains and mountain waters with steep radiant what we found was not really nothing smooth was nothing calm but it was choppy with rapids even higher water levels than usual.
And this means and this meant that immediately upon entering we all flipped and we all got separated. We're all we're up and down the river. Well you can imagine the fear that would take hold of me as we're getting out at the takeout I'm counting my students I'm missing too. We drove around the park looking and looking and looking and asking people if they had seen them.
I'd gotten park rangers involved with seeing if we could find these two students and after two hours I was beginning to dread the phone call that I knew would have to come of calling two families and telling them that I could not find their children last I saw them they were on the river. If you can imagine the relief an overwhelming sense of joy I experienced when I found them sitting with their tubes at the very place where we rented them. If you're curious about what happened or how this all finished up you're welcome to catch me after the service but needless to say I'm not going to take anyone tubing ever again. I'll tell you that story to tell you I think Peter is explaining in some ways to us that the joy of being found must be understood in the fear of being lost.
I think this is a hallmark of proclaiming the gospel and Peter teaches us that here that we have to see our sin as the offense to God that it is that we won't value being found if we don't think we're lost or to put another way grace whenever he's sweet until sin is bitter. That striking fear into the hearts of those listeners is what makes grace seem all the more glorious and all the more amazing. Notice that Peter doesn't give a propositional command. He doesn't say believe upon Jesus and be saved but Peter is painted Christ as the promised and awaited Messiah full of glory enthroned in heaven and his audience has guilty and sinful even complicit in his very death.
He reminds them of his power and his lordship over all things and what's the response? What we see the spirit is at work and they heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles brothers what must we do? The spirit worked and stirred in these people. And to this point I want to remind you that the salvation ultimately is not something that we can convince folks they need as if all they really need is a good argument.
We're not salesmen peddling some kind of insurance from the judgment of God saying you know act now the free grace of the gospel is offered and yet it requires and necessitates a response that is rooted in the conviction of my own sin that I in in fact guilty that Jesus is my only hope and this can only be born by the power of the spirit working within us. We're generating us and bringing us to life that we might see our sin for the offense that it is. So the question we ask ourselves is what shall we do? He says repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
Who tells us that those in the audience were cut to the heart. They were laid bare before the Lord and what's happening here in Acts 2 is that what is in the heart is being brought to light and there is no greater indication that our hearts are dark and fallen than the very murder of Christ and his crucifixion. No greater display of our depravity of sin. No greater representation of our enmity with God.
Surely the work of the seed was serpent. All those men and women and children born in sin and far off from God. And so church we have to ask ourselves the question has our own heart been laid bare before the Lord. Have we felt that spotlight that brings to light those deepest and secret sins?
Maybe with Martin Luther as he arranged the words of Solomon 30 to him or to him asked and from the depths of low I raise to the voice of lamentation. Lord turn a gracious ear to me and hear myself location. If thou any who needs to mark our secret sins and miss these dark, O who shall stand before thee? O who shall stand before thee?
If God or to count our sins against us, who would stand before him? What beloved Peter tells us that it's Christ who is ever at his right hand and he ever lives to intercede for you and for me and maybe you're listening this evening and you're like those listening to Peter, right? What shall I do then? And repentance run to Christ.
Confess your sins, ask for forgiveness, believe upon him, follow him and trust that that the blood that was spilled on Calorie was spilled for you and that in glory united to Christ forever, God will see Jesus when he looks upon you. Maybe this evening you're here and you're having trust within Christ for your salvation. We know that the blood that was sufficient for you and you were born again is sufficient for you this day and will be sufficient for you when you appear before God in judgment. Continue to run to Christ.
Confess your sin, knowing that forgiveness is yours and him and leave this evening with great confidence, great assurance that you have a God of whom you can never be snatched from his hands and that you have received every good gift in Christ forever and he is our Lord, exulted in the heavens and does all of these pleases. Amen and amen.