00:00: Join me in prayer.
00:05: God, we praise you.
00:07: First and foremost for sending Jesus.
00:09: Thank you for loving the world in this way.
00:12: Loving the world so much that you sent Jesus for us.
00:15: I pray that through the preaching of your word, that your spirit would be at work in our hearts and minds this morning.
00:23: That we offer ourselves up to you, Holy Spirit, and say, do as is pleasing to you.
00:29: Do more than we dare ask.
00:31: Do more than we think we need, but what we actually need.
00:35: Move in us so that we treasure Jesus more fully.
00:40: And toward that end, that we rely on you more faithfully, more consistently.
00:47: We need you, Spirit, in order to make much of Jesus and to relate to Jesus as we ought to for the glory of God.
00:55: Do, in our midst this morning, what none of us can do for ourselves.
01:04: We pray these things in Jesus' name.
01:06: Amen.
01:06: I love our passage this morning.
01:11: You've got to love any story that begins with somebody so empowered by the Spirit of God that people think he's drunk and ends with 3,000 people getting saved.
01:25: Now, if I made up a story like that, I think it would get shut down right away.
01:29: But God put it in the Bible.
01:31: That's an amazing story.
01:32: Now, where are we?
01:35: What's going on here?
01:36: To this point in our study of the book of Acts, we've seen that the resurrected Jesus has been revealing himself to his disciples post-resurrection.
01:45: He's been teaching them.
01:47: Then he ascended from the earth back into heaven, but gave them their marching orders.
01:52: He said, you wait.
01:53: You wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit, whom God will send, so that that Spirit can empower you for witness about me, that is about Jesus, to the world.
02:05: And then we saw the disciples waiting.
02:08: And about 50 days after the death of Christ, about a week or so after Jesus' ascension, the Holy Spirit comes.
02:17: We looked at that two weeks ago.
02:18: How the Holy Spirit descended on them, and there was like this little visual thing happening of like a tongue of fire over each individual Christian present, and how that mimics or emulates or uses Old Testament imagery to say, look, the powerful presence of God has come in our midst, and it's not just the group as a whole or this room or this building, but it's each individual person who has faith in Jesus is now the temple of God, where God himself is present.
02:51: Because you see, the Holy Spirit is God.
02:54: So we're at that point, and then we had to pause, and now we're coming back, and in this filling of the Spirit, as we saw two weeks ago, the disciples begin to speak in tongues.
03:06: That is, they speak in foreign languages they don't know.
03:09: It would be like as if I started speaking Swahili, or Afrikaans, or Portuguese or something, some language that I've never learned to speak.
03:19: And why was that happening?
03:20: It was because in Jerusalem, at that time, there was folks from all different places that spoke different languages, and so God, by his Spirit, empowered his believers, his disciples, to speak in ways that were intelligible to all these different folks who were gathered.
03:37: And a lot of locals are hearing this, hearing all these different languages, and be like, I don't know what's going on with these guys.
03:43: They must be drunk.
03:46: Chapter 2, verse 13 says, Others mocking said, they are filled with new wine.
03:55: I like the Living Bible paraphrase of that verse.
03:58: Others in the crowd were mocking, saying, they're drunk, that's all.
04:03: So what do you do in that moment?
04:05: You're a Jesus follower, you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you're passionate about the Lord, and the people around you are mocking you, treating you like you're just a drunk or something.
04:18: I think oftentimes, the place to start is exactly what Peter does.
04:22: He addresses their issue.
04:25: People around him think Peter and the others are drunk, so the first thing he does is repudiate that claim.
04:30: Verse 15, he says, these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
04:36: Now, Jewish time reckoning is different than ours.
04:39: When they talk about the hours of the daytime, they talk about the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour, or whatever.
04:46: And so they start, if you take 6 a.m., then add.
04:49: So 6 a.m.
04:49: plus third hour, it means it's 9 a.m.
04:51: It's like, guys, they're not drunk.
04:53: It's 9 a.m.
04:54: You don't get drunk by 9 a.m., right?
04:56: That's an evening activity.
04:57: Not that you should be, but it's certainly not appropriate at 9 a.m.
05:02: You can paraphrase verse 15, something like this.
05:06: Come on, fellas.
05:06: They're not drunk.
05:08: It's just 9 a.m., right?
05:10: That's not a good explanation for what's going on.
05:13: And then Peter proceeds to explain what is going on.
05:16: It's not that.
05:17: It's not a good explanation.
05:19: What is going on is that God has poured out his spirit, which is what we, the readers, know is going on, but he uses the Old Testament Scriptures, quoting from the Old Testament prophet Joel, something in the ballpark of 600 years beforehand, and saying, this is exactly what God told us to expect would happen.
05:42: You are seeing Scripture fulfilled in front of your eyes right here, right now.
05:47: And he shows that.
05:49: Verse 17, In these last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit.
05:55: And so Peter recognizes this Old Testament passage is fulfilled in our midst, and then he tells the crowd that.
06:03: Now, using the Old Testament to make his point, it's perfect for a Jewish crowd, right?
06:07: He's in Jerusalem.
06:08: It's predominantly Jewish people.
06:10: And at the festival time of Passover, the harvest festival that was going on, there would have been lots of Jews, even from surrounding areas, which is why there's so many different languages present.
06:20: And there would have been some Gentiles, for sure, but largely Jewish.
06:24: And he's like, hey, let me start with what you know.
06:26: Let me show you from God's Word.
06:31: It was all about this final stage of redemptive history.
06:36: Verse 17, In these last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit.
06:42: And Peter's explaining to the crowd, that's now.
06:45: We're in the last days.
06:46: This final stage of redemptive history.
06:48: God's been working all along about rescuing people from sin.
06:52: And now we're in the climactic final stage and the Holy Spirit's been poured out.
06:56: And so this is it, guys.
06:59: We're in that moment.
07:01: And what about today?
07:02: Are we?
07:02: Yeah.
07:03: The way that the New Testament talks about the last days is predominantly what we might call the church era, from 2,000 years ago to present and continuing until Jesus' return.
07:13: We are in the last days.
07:15: Now, there's still some final, final stuff yet to come as God works to bring things to its conclusion.
07:22: But we are in the era categorized by the New Testament as the last days.
07:28: Well, what does it mean that the Holy Spirit is being poured out?
07:31: The Holy Spirit being poured out is not primarily defined in terms of the function of God's Spirit, though that's very important.
07:39: He has lots of specific responsibilities assigned him by God the Father and God the Son, including convicting the world and empowering believers and so on.
07:50: But even more central is who, not what, the Holy Spirit is.
07:56: Now, if you don't grow up in the church, you're not familiar with this.
08:00: I'm talking about myself here.
08:01: I did not grow up church.
08:02: I did not grow up growing to church.
08:03: I did not grow up reading the Bible.
08:06: And so if you're not familiar with these things, here's what we're talking about.
08:10: Christianity teaches that there is one God.
08:13: Always has been, always will be, one.
08:16: Just one, not two, not three, not five, not ten.
08:20: One, forever and ever.
08:22: And that that one God has always existed, does exist, and will always exist.
08:28: But that that one God has always been, is, and will always be three persons.
08:35: One God, three persons, hard theology, terrible math, truth.
08:45: That's the reality of it.
08:46: Now, we describe these three persons using biblical language as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
08:54: We do not mean by that that God sometimes acts like a Father, and sometimes acts like a Son, and sometimes acts like a Spirit.
09:03: That's a heresy called modalism.
09:04: We don't want to go there.
09:05: We are talking about God always being all three of these persons.
09:11: I am always Dylan.
09:13: From the beginning of my existence to eternity, I will be Dylan.
09:16: That's who I am, period.
09:18: God, the person of the Father, has always been Father.
09:21: God the Son, a.k.a.
09:21: Jesus, has always been God the Son.
09:25: God the Holy Spirit, or in some traditions, the Holy Ghost, has always been, always will be God the Holy Spirit.
09:31: Now, because they're all one God, there's perfect unity between them, and they have the same attributes.
09:36: They're all omniscient.
09:38: They're all gracious.
09:40: They're all love.
09:41: They're all sovereign.
09:42: Any attribute that's true of any of them is true of all of them.
09:45: Okay?
09:47: And what we're talking about in God pouring out His Spirit in this post-ascension way is not that God's Spirit becomes active in the world.
09:56: That's not new.
09:57: God's Spirit was active in the Old Testament in the world.
09:59: It's talking about the Holy Spirit's moving into the neighborhood.
10:04: He's getting a permanent address, namely, inside you and me as believers.
10:09: He begins to live in us.
10:13: That's totally a new reality in the New Testament.
10:17: And it's awesome.
10:18: That's what's going on.
10:19: Chapter 1, verse 5 used the language of baptism.
10:22: Jesus said, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
10:25: 1 Corinthians 12, 13 talks about how all believers have been baptized into one body in the Spirit.
10:33: Baptized in Spirit into one body.
10:34: So the idea is this.
10:35: Baptism of the Spirit means the Holy Spirit begins to live inside of you.
10:40: And it's true for all Christians.
10:43: Now, why did God promise to do this?
10:46: Why not do that in the Old Testament?
10:47: Why now?
10:48: Why this?
10:49: Well, at the end of Peter's quote from Joel, he explains.
10:54: Here's where it leads us.
10:55: It shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
11:00: The Spirit is poured out in this baptizing way to live in believers, to empower them for witness so that people hear about Jesus, turn to Jesus, that is, call upon the name of the Lord, and get saved.
11:13: The Holy Spirit's job, living in believers, is in part to work in their lives so that other people get saved.
11:21: Now, I have told you a number of times in recent months that if we as a church are faithful in witnessing to the non-Christians around us, God will produce fruit.
11:31: I can't promise the numbers.
11:33: I can't promise the timing, but that he will do it.
11:35: If God doesn't produce fruit through faithful gospel witness by his people, then the Holy Spirit is failing in his job.
11:44: And I guarantee that's not going to happen.
11:47: The Holy Spirit does not mess up.
11:48: The Holy Spirit gets the job done.
11:50: And the Father and the Son have told the Holy Spirit, work through Christians and get people saved.
11:56: You and I get to join in on that.
11:59: Peter's joining in on it right here.
12:01: God's plan announced hundreds and hundreds of years ahead of time through the prophet Joel in the Old Testament era was for God's Spirit to take up residence in God's people and empower them to represent God in such a way that people call on the name of the Lord and are saved.
12:15: Which is exactly what Jesus told them they were waiting for to begin with.
12:19: Chapter 1, verse 8.
12:20: Jesus told them, You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.
12:27: You get power when he comes, you'll be my witnesses.
12:30: That's what's going on.
12:33: Where do you go from there?
12:34: Where does Peter go from there?
12:35: After you assure these unbelievers that, No, you're not drunk.
12:40: And hopefully most of your witnessing opportunities don't begin with having to prove you're not drunk.
12:45: This is kind of an unusual situation.
12:48: But after that, where do you go from there?
12:52: Well, in verse 22, Peter segues flawlessly into talking about Jesus.
12:57: He's just quoted, Hey, here's what's actually happening.
13:00: And the point of that is that people are going to turn to the Lord.
13:03: So let me tell you about the Lord.
13:05: Doesn't that just make sense?
13:06: Look at verses 22 to 24.
13:09: Men of Israel, hear these words.
13:11: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
13:34: God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
13:43: Notice that he starts with what he knows that they know about Jesus.
13:50: Because he's preaching here in Jerusalem, he knows that a lot of locals have already heard about Jesus.
13:58: They've already encountered Jesus.
13:59: They know that he was this miracle-working prophet of God.
14:02: They know that he'd done all kinds of fantastic things.
14:06: And so he starts there to connect with his audience.
14:12: Maybe today, you or I would be sharing about Jesus with someone who has a church background, but they don't understand the gospel message.
14:20: They don't understand the good news that it's faith, not what we do, in Jesus, not ourselves or anything else, by grace alone, not by deserving it, that people get saved.
14:34: That it's simply you trust in Jesus.
14:37: Maybe they've gone to a church where that hasn't been taught or hasn't been clear, or maybe it hasn't, they just, somehow the light bulb's never gone on.
14:44: Maybe you're talking to somebody like that, and you start with the common understanding that they as a church person would have, that we have, well, Jesus is the Savior, right?
14:53: Well, what does that mean?
14:54: We might start unpacking.
14:55: Well, if Jesus is the Savior, that means he's the one that does the saving.
14:59: So it can't be us helping save ourselves.
15:02: It must be him that saves us, right?
15:05: And you start with that common ground, and then you get more specific to where they don't understand.
15:09: You go to the common ground of how God's Word teaches that Jesus saves by faith.
15:17: Romans 3.28 For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
15:23: Now that's Romans 3 where Paul is unpacking, this is the basic good news message of Christianity.
15:30: And he's saying, we hold, we teach, we believe that one, any person, is justified, that is forgiven by God, and considered righteous by God because you get credit for Jesus and his perfection.
15:43: You get that by faith, not by works.
15:47: Apart from works.
15:48: Not faith plus works, but faith severed from, not related to works.
15:54: That's how you get that standing.
15:57: Maybe you're talking to somebody who has kind of like this generic cultural idea about Christianity as like, well, Christianity kind of gives you some morals and gives you kind of a framework for being a good person and that's kind of all that Christianity is.
16:11: And you can define what good and bad is just based on, you know, whatever's popular in culture at the time.
16:16: And you can start off with, you know, well, actually, every branch of Christianity out there uses the same symbol, the cross.
16:25: Why?
16:26: Because Jesus died on the cross.
16:28: Every branch of Christianity says that Jesus is at the center.
16:33: Christianity is about Christ.
16:35: Jesus Christ.
16:36: And so, any version of Christianity that's not about Jesus, well, that's not Christianity anymore.
16:42: And then you can go into, well, what is Christianity?
16:45: What is Jesus about?
16:46: Who is he?
16:46: And what has he done?
16:47: Right?
16:48: We can imitate Peter here and starting where people are at, finding common ground, and then helping them go where they haven't yet gone and say, this is what Christianity really is all about.
17:00: What else does Peter draw their attention to in verse 22?
17:05: Well, he explains who Jesus was in his life on earth, including that God was clearly at work in him, that he died by crucifixion, and then he gives dual credit here.
17:17: He gives credit to people for having produced the death of Jesus, and he gives credit to God for having a definite plan for this to happen.
17:29: Verse 23, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, so God's getting credit on that part of the verse, you, people in Jerusalem, crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
17:47: That is, you contributed to Jesus getting executed.
17:51: No, you're not the one that sentenced him.
17:52: No, you're not the one that nailed him up, but you contributed to Pilate and the Romans and the Jewish leaders all having their hands dipped in and participating in this so that Jesus ended up killed.
18:06: What are we supposed to get from that?
18:08: Why does Peter include that here?
18:10: On the one hand, God did not sin by crucifying Jesus because crucifying Jesus was a sin.
18:19: On the other hand, it wasn't just something that happened and God's like, oops, happy accidents, Bob Ross style, right?
18:27: Like, God's perfect plan and intentionality and design to rescue people and people doing bad people stuff are a perfect fit in this moment so that God accomplishes through Jesus what needs to happen even though it involves sin.
18:46: Sometimes it's hard to wrap our heads around, but imagine this.
18:49: If God could not work in situations involving sin, if God couldn't work through sinful people doing sinful things, then we have no hope of Him doing anything in our lives because we're all sinful people and there's always sin going on and when sin's going on, that's when we need the help mostly anyway, right?
19:11: That's what's going on here.
19:18: Are we done with verse 23?
19:20: No.
19:21: There's more in 23.
19:22: You knew I was going to stay there for a while, didn't you?
19:26: Multiple things to see.
19:27: First, a little help.
19:29: People often struggle to understand how the sovereignty of God and human responsibility can be compatible.
19:37: If God's sovereign, how can we be responsible for what we do morally?
19:41: And if we're morally responsible for what we do, how can God be in control and sovereign over that?
19:46: How do those fit together?
19:48: If you struggle with that, you're not alone.
19:50: People have struggled with that all throughout history.
19:52: And in our study of Romans not long ago, we saw in Romans 9 that the Apostle Paul explicitly addressed that issue and expected that struggle from his readers.
20:05: But verse 23 is a help because it presents the fact of both realities in the same breath in 23.
20:14: We can't escape the tension of God's sovereignty and human responsibility by simply saying, well, I'm just going to go to this extreme or that extreme and ignore the other one because verse 23 says this and that.
20:27: Same breath, same sentence.
20:29: They're compatible.
20:31: Now, it doesn't solve the how they fit in its entirety, but it helps us to know that we dare not grab one and jettison the other.
20:41: Both and.
20:41: this verse identifies the actions of human beings that killed Jesus as the direct cause of Jesus' death and it calls them lawless men.
20:53: That is, they are criminal.
20:54: They're guilty people, morally responsible.
20:57: And it also identifies in strong language the plan and engagement of God in what was taking place.
21:04: That God's part preceded the human part.
21:09: Definite plan, it says.
21:12: Right?
21:12: In other words, God was not winging it and God didn't have a generalized plan that he was adapting on the fly as people did people's stuff.
21:25: God had the details worked out in advance and it was going precisely according to plan.
21:31: Even as people did bad people's stuff.
21:35: Now, here's the other thing that we need to see in verse 23.
21:38: Peter, not doing a stupid Peter thing, though he does that sometimes, right?
21:44: Peter tends to jump in both feet and kind of do some crazy stuff.
21:47: Like when Jesus was washing feet, he's like, no, no, no, Jesus, I can't let you do that.
21:52: And Jesus is like, well, if you don't let me do this, you have no part with me.
21:54: And he's like, full body sponge bath, Jesus, as a paraphrase, but that's the gist of it.
21:58: Like, wash my whole body, Jesus, go ahead.
22:00: Like, all right, Peter, just let Jesus do what he's doing.
22:05: You'll figure it out.
22:06: He'll help you, but don't.
22:08: Peter does this kind of stuff, right?
22:10: He's all in.
22:12: What's going on here?
22:14: Peter, empowered by the Spirit, so that gives us a hint that he's doing the right thing, and we know that this leads to 3,000 people getting saved.
22:24: That's another hint that he's on the right track here.
22:27: He says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan of foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
22:38: He begins to remind his audience, y'all are guilty people in God's sight.
22:46: Why does he do that?
22:47: Because nobody can be saved.
22:52: Nobody can get right with God.
22:54: Nobody can have Jesus as their Savior if they don't recognize they need saving, if they don't understand what they're being saved from.
23:06: And so, they need to know that they're guilty.
23:10: Now, because he's in Jerusalem, he can identify the locals as having had a role in how Jesus came to be put to death.
23:15: If you look back at the gospel accounts of how Jesus was arrested and crucified, it goes something like the crowds getting riled up at the sentencing by the Jewish leadership so that they demand that Jesus be crucified.
23:30: Some of these crowds then and in this situation probably overlapped.
23:35: And so, there's some degree of public guilt for going along with wicked leaders.
23:40: That's true today too, right?
23:42: We ought not to go along with wicked leaders in the church, in government, in whatever setting.
23:48: Sin is sin.
23:49: And Christians don't participate in that if they're walking faithfully with God in the moment.
23:55: So, you can come back to this again.
23:59: Piling on the guilt, verse 36.
24:01: Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified.
24:09: That last phrase is not necessary except to help the people recognize their guiltiness in God's sight.
24:18: The rest of the verse stands fully on its own.
24:22: That whom you crucified only helps to convince them of their guilt.
24:27: Now, I don't believe, personal belief here, I don't believe it's helpful usually to start out witnessing to someone by talking about that person's guilt if they don't already recognize it, right?
24:38: Now, sometimes you're going to be talking to a friend, a neighbor, a coworker, whoever, who feels really bad about something and they feel really guilty about something and then in that case maybe you do start with their recognition of their guilt and work from there.
24:48: Well, yeah, I feel guilty sometimes too.
24:51: Here's how I've come to recognize that God means for me to deal with that.
24:55: To Jesus, right?
24:57: But other times, you know, you're talking to somebody and they think they got their act together.
25:01: They think they're pretty good.
25:02: You probably don't start off, well, actually Bob, you're pretty bad.
25:06: In fact, you're the kind of person God wants to send to hell.
25:09: Let me tell you about that.
25:10: That does not open up healthy, friendly conversations, right?
25:16: And yet, there are plenty of ways to get to a person's guilt.
25:22: How many have ever met somebody who's not guilty of something?
25:26: A lot of us, right?
25:27: Every single person in our lives, even the ones we like best, got some shortcomings.
25:34: And I don't mean one or two.
25:36: I mean like one or two thousand a day, right?
25:38: Everyone has shortcomings in all manner of different ways.
25:44: There's plenty of ways to point out that we all fall short.
25:48: And a lot of times, the best way to do it is by admitting your own shortcomings and saying, I know I'm not the only one that struggles with fill in the blank.
25:59: But you have to get there.
26:01: You have to help the person that you're sharing about Jesus with recognize that they have a need of saving before they're ever going to want to embrace the Savior.
26:12: I love that Peter goes here.
26:15: Now, picture the scene.
26:17: Three thousand people end up saved.
26:20: So this is a big group.
26:21: This is a large crowd.
26:22: It has to be at least three thousand people-ish there, right?
26:26: Minimum.
26:27: And that would be if everyone turned to faith and probably not.
26:30: So it's probably more than three thousand people.
26:33: And Peter is in Jerusalem.
26:35: So he's in the place where the Jewish leadership is strongest, where the strongest opposition to Jesus is most represented.
26:44: And he can really get himself into trouble by putting guilt on the leadership calling them lawless men and shaming the local Jews.
26:53: And it's Peter doing this.
26:56: Now, this is the day of Pentecost.
26:57: This is 50 days after Passover.
27:00: About 50 days, a month and a half, a little more, from the time of Jesus' death.
27:06: Which means that this is about a month and a half from the time that Peter denied knowing Jesus.
27:14: On the night when Jesus was betrayed, he said, hey, one of you is going to betray me and then y'all are going to run away.
27:21: And Jesus is like, oh no.
27:22: Or sorry, Peter's like, oh no, no, no.
27:24: Maybe all these guys would.
27:26: I'll never do that, Jesus.
27:27: I love that.
27:29: He's so arrogant in his self-confidence that he's going to stick with Jesus that he throws the other guys under the bus to Jesus in front of the other guys.
27:41: That is not how to make friends and influence people, Peter.
27:46: And then how does it go?
27:47: Jesus says, by the time the rooster crows in the morning, you'll deny me three times.
27:52: And what happens?
27:53: Exactly what Jesus says.
27:54: By morning, Peter has denied Jesus.
27:59: When you read the story, it's not just like, well, you know, I'm not going to follow Jesus.
28:02: He denies even knowing Jesus to a little servant girl.
28:06: Like, oh, you sound guy.
28:08: Are you one of the guys that was with him?
28:10: Oh, no, I don't know the guy.
28:11: Even to the point of cursing about it.
28:14: Like, he went from there a month and a half ago to publicly massive crowds saying, y'all are guilty before God.
28:24: How does he get there in a month and a half?
28:27: I think at least two things.
28:30: Number one, the resurrection.
28:32: When you see the one you're following conquer death and come alive again, that changes things.
28:38: Jesus is not a mere moral teacher.
28:40: He is the one who has conquered death.
28:43: He cannot die.
28:45: Your king, your leader, your boss, your lord, your master cannot be defeated.
28:51: He even let them kill him and that didn't stop him.
28:56: That puts steel in your spine.
28:59: Number two, the coming of the Holy Spirit.
29:03: He's empowered by the Spirit and I think that's even the greater emphasis in this passage.
29:07: God's Spirit will make God's Spirit people bold for witness.
29:12: God's Spirit can turn fearful failures into audacious ambassadors.
29:18: God's Spirit can turn fearful failures like Peter into audacious ambassadors like Peter.
29:25: Not only can God do that, I think God delights to do that.
29:29: I believe that God is going to be pleased to work through the likes of you and me to reach the people of the Green Bay area with the gospel of Jesus.
29:36: Maybe you've been afraid in the past.
29:38: Maybe you've been worried about how people are going to respond.
29:40: Okay, yeah, Peter was.
29:43: But you know what?
29:44: Look to God's Spirit to give you the strength, to give you the boldness, to give you the courage and expect God to work and bear fruit.
29:51: You don't need to bear fruit in your strength.
29:53: God will bear fruit through the strength that he provides for you.
30:03: Peter is in Jerusalem less than two months after Jesus was publicly executed and he uses that context to bring up guilt.
30:12: There's always a segue.
30:13: There's always a way to go there.
30:16: And again, Peter connects it to God's Word, showing from the Old Testament that it makes sense that Jesus didn't stay dead.
30:26: He talks about the death of Jesus, right?
30:28: He was crucified, you put him to death.
30:31: But that was things going according to plan.
30:34: He says, let me tell you about what King David of the Old Testament wrote in a prophetic way about Jesus.
30:39: He talks about that and then he does a second quote to say, don't misunderstand what David's talking about.
30:45: David could not have been talking about himself because David stayed dead.
30:50: He's still dead.
30:51: We know that.
30:52: But the one that Jesus, he's the one that came alive.
30:55: So the one that David was talking about who came alive, that's the one.
31:00: Loose the pangs of death.
31:03: Have you ever seen someone physically resurrected?
31:07: Nada, right?
31:09: Doesn't happen.
31:10: I remember going to my own father's funeral with zero expectation that he would get out of the casket.
31:16: And he didn't disappoint.
31:18: He stayed right there.
31:19: Because that's what dead people do, right?
31:22: This audience is no different than us in that way.
31:24: They know that dead people stay dead.
31:26: So Peter is helping them to recognize the reasonableness of the claim of resurrection.
31:33: He's saying, that's not a normal thing.
31:34: That's not a thing that just happens.
31:36: God would have to do it.
31:37: But God said he was going to do it.
31:40: God prophesied ahead of time that this was going to happen.
31:43: This fits with what God announced.
31:46: It is therefore reasonable that God would work in this way.
31:49: And then he comes to his powerful sermon conclusion, verse 36.
31:54: Let all the house of Israel, and he's talking to the Jews like, let all you Jews know, therefore, for certain that God has made him, Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
32:09: Again, he puts that dagger in his hand.
32:11: You rejected this guy.
32:13: You didn't want nothing to do.
32:13: You wanted him dead rather than deal with him.
32:16: And God has made him Lord and Christ.
32:19: He's made him the master, the boss, the one in charge.
32:21: And he's made him the Christ.
32:23: That is the chosen one of God to reign over God's people, including saving them.
32:28: And you rejected him.
32:30: Right?
32:32: Be like if one of you was really nasty to somebody in my family and then walks into my office for a favor while I'm consoling my family member.
32:44: That's a little awkward.
32:46: Right?
32:47: That's what Peter's doing here.
32:49: He's saying, you rejected God's son.
32:53: You put him to death.
32:56: And the people at this point are freaked out.
32:58: Oh no.
32:59: What do we do?
33:00: Right?
33:01: That's where the next section goes.
33:02: Verse 37 to 40 is about how then do we respond.
33:05: Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what should we do?
33:13: Right?
33:14: Uh oh.
33:14: We're in trouble.
33:16: We don't know how to fix this.
33:18: Peter, fellow Jesus followers, tell us where do we go from here?
33:22: Is there any hope for us?
33:23: How do we respond?
33:26: And Peter's response is, Peter said to them, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
33:40: First thing I want to point out, Peter calls them to repentance.
33:47: Don't bother sharing Jesus with people if you're not going to get that truth in there.
33:52: You cannot trust in Jesus as your Savior if you don't turn away from sin.
34:00: Repentance literally means a change of mind, a turning from one direction to the other that results in a change of behavior.
34:08: Right?
34:09: It's a repentance spiritually then is a change of your mind so that you turn away from sin and toward Jesus.
34:16: Well, you can't head towards Jesus unless you first turn away from sin.
34:19: It's non-negotiable.
34:21: In this room, for example, I can face the drums or I can face the door.
34:29: I can't face both at the same time.
34:32: I need to choose.
34:33: Right?
34:35: If I face the drums, I'm in trouble.
34:40: Sorry, Andrew.
34:40: I know you're a drum guy but they're representing sin this morning.
34:45: I can face that but as long as I'm facing that, I'm not facing Jesus, the door.
34:51: And that works because Jesus said I am the door.
34:53: Right?
34:53: That's a Gospel of John thing.
34:57: So, Andrew, your drums are sin.
35:00: I have to change my thing and say I'm not going to be about drums anymore and I have to turn and turn towards Jesus.
35:06: Right?
35:06: So repentance is part of the Gospel message.
35:08: You've got to have that in there.
35:10: And then Peter.
35:11: Oh, Peter.
35:13: He says something that is excellent but we've got to be careful we don't misunderstand.
35:18: He says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
35:27: He says, get saved by baptism.
35:30: Essentially.
35:31: He does not mean get dunked in water and the dunking in water will get you saved.
35:39: That does not compute with the rest of Scripture.
35:42: In fact, that would be a violation of the Gospel message as clearly articulated over and over and over in the Bible.
35:50: We read this morning, Romans 3.28, we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
35:57: It's not about keeping the rules.
35:58: Romans, if salvation hinged on you necessarily getting physically dunked in water, then the thief on the cross was lied to by Jesus because he didn't have a chance to get baptized and therefore he would not be saved.
36:13: Rather, what Peter is saying, and we're told later in this paragraph that in many other words, like this is just a brief summary, he had a lot more to say to them on this and I'm sure it was clear in his context, he is saying what baptism represents is faith in Jesus.
36:32: Baptism is an outward sign of an inward spiritual reality.
36:37: And as we saw in our study of Romans, Romans chapter 6, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
36:45: And then it goes on to explain, of course we don't continue in sin because we've died with Christ and been resurrected with Christ through baptism.
36:53: Baptism is a picture of Jesus' death counting for us, Jesus' new life counting for us, and that's the reality that's true for us in God's sight by faith.
37:05: So, is he calling them to literal baptism?
37:07: Absolutely.
37:08: But he's calling them not just to literal baptism, he's calling them to the spiritual reality pictured by baptism.
37:16: That's why he doesn't need to mention faith in this verse because it supposes faith.
37:21: Now, is baptism necessary?
37:29: Is baptism necessary for the Christian?
37:32: Is it required?
37:34: The answer is yes.
37:36: It is not required to be saved.
37:40: Physical baptism is not required to be saved.
37:43: Spiritual, the faith of what it represents is required.
37:47: But literal baptism is not required to be saved.
37:49: However, it's still required.
37:52: Jesus commanded his followers in the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything he's commanded.
38:07: It is required.
38:09: There ought not be any Christians who are not baptized.
38:14: That is unacceptable.
38:16: It is, in fact, disobedience to God to be a believer in Jesus who continues without being baptized.
38:24: That said, we have someone in our midst in that very situation who is getting baptized next month.
38:32: And so, if you are in that situation and you're not that person and you know who you are, come talk to me.
38:40: I want to see you included in this.
38:43: Baptism is a great thing invented by God, commanded by God.
38:47: It doesn't save, but it pictures what does.
38:50: Being connected to Jesus by faith.
38:52: His death counting in God's sight for you.
38:55: His new life now given to you.
38:57: It comes by faith.
38:59: You turn away from sin.
39:00: You turn to Him.
39:01: And God forgives you.
39:03: Your sins are forgiven.
39:04: And then He says something I don't think I've ever heard anybody say in an evangelistic context in present life.
39:20: He says, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39:26: He's just been in this amazing situation where they're speaking in tongues.
39:30: People are hearing the gospel in their own language.
39:32: Some folks are thinking they're drunk.
39:34: He's explaining what's going on.
39:35: He said, this is Old Testament prophecy fulfillment that's happening right now.
39:39: And then he concludes, he's like, and you can get in on this folks.
39:42: This is for you too.
39:43: This is not elite Christians.
39:45: This is not apostles only.
39:47: This is all who believe in Jesus get this.
39:50: This gift is for you and your children and people who are far away.
39:54: That is, not the Jews, but the Gentiles geographically removed from Jerusalem.
39:59: This is for whomever has repentant faith in Jesus.
40:03: You can get in on this.
40:04: The Holy Spirit will live in you too.
40:07: Realize that when you read these stories about the Holy Spirit coming on them, that's not them as opposed to you.
40:14: That's them and you too.
40:17: You live with the Holy Spirit in you today.
40:21: Tomorrow, when you go to work, when you go to the store, whatever it is that you do, you're going and traveling to Thailand.
40:28: You're working with athletes.
40:30: you're sharing coffee with somebody at the coffee shop.
40:33: Whatever it is you're doing, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you ready to say, I have some power for you to talk about Jesus.
40:41: Let's do it.
40:43: Join the Holy Spirit in the work that He's doing because you are the temple of God where God's Spirit lives.
40:50: we say here that our mission is for every believer, well that means you if you're a Christian, for every believer to become, make, mature, and multiply fully surrendered disciples of Jesus Christ.
41:09: My desire, our church's desire, the leadership of this church's desire is for every Christian in this room to become a more fully surrendered disciple of Jesus Christ.
41:18: And part of that journey is for you to invest in others.
41:23: If you are not investing in others, you are not a mature disciple of Jesus Christ.
41:27: And by investing in others, I mean three things.
41:29: I mean making disciples, that is doing evangelism, sharing the gospel with people that don't know Jesus.
41:35: Number two, maturing disciples, that is helping somebody who's become a Christian to understand what following Jesus looks like, to understand who Jesus is and how God works and to make sense of the Bible and so on.
41:46: Helping them to be a healthy, increasingly mature Christian.
41:50: And then, here's the tricky thing, helping them to multiply.
41:57: Helping them to transition from being a I believe in Jesus, I'm following Jesus kind of person to a now I'm helping others repeat the process.
42:06: That's part of what we're doing right here, right now.
42:08: I'm trying to encourage you to make that step from a more mature or maturing believer into a multiplying believer.
42:16: This is God's will for you.
42:18: It's also necessary for the health of God's church.
42:22: God's church is always on the brink of extinction.
42:26: It is always one generation from extinction.
42:29: It's only as God's people trust God and are empowered by God and witness to the world about Jesus that God creates the next generation of the church.
42:40: God calls you to be witnesses about Jesus to the world.
42:50: Amen?
42:52: Alright.
42:53: Let's pray.
42:55: Father, we want to make much of Jesus because He's worthy, because He's good, because He's magnificent, because He's sinless and flawless, because He is Lord and Christ, because He is the one that death cannot hold, because He is the Savior of the world.
43:14: But we want to make much of Him not only in our corporate gatherings.
43:20: We want to make much of Him before the watching world around us.
43:25: We want to make much of Jesus in a way that is sensible and comprehensible to the unbelievers around us.
43:34: Would You help us by the power of Your Spirit to respond well when the world around us thinks stupid things about us, thinks pejoratively about us, to respond with winsomeness and kindness and truth and point them to Jesus in the power that You supply.
43:58: We ask these things in Jesus' name.
44:03: Amen.