- 5/25/2025
Please enjoy this message delivered by Pastor Mark Hudson.
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00:00I'm reading a book right now called Courageous Christianity by a man named D. Martin Lloyd-Jones.
00:06He died in 1981, so he died several years ago, but he was a Welsh Congregationalist
00:12pastor in Westminster Chapel in England, London, England, for 30 years he pastored.
00:17He's a scholar, a theologian, a pastor, writes really good stuff.
00:21He can take one verse and write 14 pages just on one verse.
00:25It's amazing, his insights.
00:26So I was reading the book, and I thought, you know what, this is exactly what we're
00:29going to be talking about in the text today.
00:33So he writes in this book called Courageous Christianity, he said, my whole object in
00:38this book, let me remind you, is to show what Christianity really is.
00:44It may seem strange to some of you that we still have to do that.
00:49The Christian faith began nearly 2,000 years ago, and there has been a Christian church
00:53ever since.
00:55One may say, surely it is no longer necessary to spend time telling us what Christianity
01:00is, but unfortunately, it is necessary.
01:04Our whole world is in a state of confusion, political confusion, moral confusion, international
01:09confusion, but there is no greater confusion than with respect to this one great question,
01:16what is the Christian message?
01:20What is the gospel?
01:22What is it that you and I are to share to our neighbor?
01:25And in 1981, he probably wrote it in the 70s, I'm guessing.
01:29He died in 81.
01:31In the 70s, he saw it as a problem.
01:33In the 70s, I think it's even worse today.
01:35I know there are children in our schools, high school on down, that really don't even
01:39know who Jesus is.
01:41They know him as a curse word, but that's it.
01:43They really have no understanding who Jesus is whatsoever.
01:46And it's hard for us to be able to tell people about Christianity or about the Christian
01:50message if we don't know what the Christian message is.
01:55This nation needs to hear the truth of what Peter has to say to his nation.
02:00We have the same message that we carry on to our nation as well.
02:04So here in Acts chapter 2, we'll be starting in verse number 14, so open your Bible, turn
02:09on your biblical device.
02:10This is God's word.
02:11We want to look at it together.
02:13So Peter preached the first gospel message, emphasizing the prophecy of God, the plan
02:19of God, the power of God, and the promise of God.
02:23And Teresa said, what, there's four points?
02:25What's that all about?
02:26Pastors only have three points.
02:27Well, actually, the text has four points.
02:30So we're going to stick with the text.
02:33So if we're called to be witnesses, we need to know what we're witnessing about.
02:37What is the message that we're supposed to tell people?
02:39And Peter gives us a really good example of how you and I can take the principles here
02:43and apply it when we share the gospel message.
02:45What is Christianity to other people?
02:49So here, the man who denied Jesus three times, in fact, it was so bad that when Jesus turned
02:54to look at him after the third time, Peter wept bitterly, the text says.
02:58Here's a man who denied Jesus three times, Jesus comes to him and ask him, do you love
03:03me?
03:04Three times.
03:05And he realized he really did love Jesus.
03:07Jesus restores him.
03:08Now this is the man preaching the first gospel sermon that we see.
03:13We're going to start in verse number 14.
03:16So again, follow along with me.
03:19Remember what's happened up to this point?
03:21The wind, the sound of the spirit coming in, the wind that came in, again, there was nothing
03:25probably moving.
03:26It was a sound that they heard.
03:27Then they saw the visible sign of the spirit coming in and leaving tongues of fire on each
03:32one of the people.
03:33They go out and they start speaking in languages that 15 geographical locations would recognize
03:40as their language.
03:41They heard it and they, and, and, and then they, the people go, ah, these people are
03:45just drunk.
03:46They're just drunk on new wine.
03:48And again, we talked about, that'd be really hard to do since it's just in the beginning
03:52of the fermentation process.
03:53You'd have to drink a gallon of it just to probably feel anything.
03:56So no, they're not drunk with wine.
04:00Verse 14, but Peter standing with the 11, so Peter and 11, that's the 12, lifted up
04:07his voice and address them.
04:10Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my
04:16words.
04:17For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day,
04:22it's 9am, they're not drunk.
04:25But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.
04:28So here now he quotes Joel out of the Old Testament.
04:32And in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
04:37And as your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions
04:42and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants in
04:47those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.
04:52And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire
04:57and vapor of smoke.
04:58The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes,
05:03the great and magnificent day, that day of the Lord that the prophets of the Old Testament
05:07talked about.
05:08And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
05:14So he opens up with this sermon.
05:16The sign got everyone gathered together and say, what's going on here?
05:20What is the message?
05:21And so Peter takes and stands up and says, this is the message that we're talking about.
05:26Notice that Peter began the sermon with God is, and he has spoken.
05:32That God exists and that he has spoken.
05:34He's speaking to Jewish people who have the Torah, the Old Testament, and were raised
05:38with the Torah and knew that God was, or God is, and that God has spoken.
05:43So he starts with God is, and he has spoken.
05:45He builds upon their common knowledge that they have.
05:48He knew his audience.
05:49He knew where they were at as Jews.
05:51So he builds on this common knowledge of the Messiah recorded in scriptures and calls upon
05:56it here.
05:57He didn't have to convince them that God existed.
05:59They knew God exists and they knew that God had spoken.
06:01So he pulls a prophecy under inspiration of the spirit.
06:04He pulls that prophecy out of Joel and gives it to them that day.
06:08This is the basic outline of the sermon.
06:10We'll kind of come back and talk through all the way through, but this is kind of basically
06:13how the sermon goes.
06:15He says, God is, and God has spoken.
06:17So we have a prophecy of God.
06:20And then he talks about the person of Jesus.
06:21This is what he did.
06:22This is what he did and his mighty works and his wonders.
06:26And then he talks about the plan of God, that God had a plan.
06:29It just wasn't an accident.
06:30And then he talks about the power of God by raising Jesus from the dead, exalting him
06:35and sitting him at his right hand, the power of God.
06:38And then we have the promise of the Holy Spirit that was actually Joel talks about here.
06:41He's going to talk about again later on.
06:43And then he says the promise of salvation, God's promise that all who repent and believe
06:48the gospel will be saved.
06:50All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
06:52That's kind of the gist of the whole sermon here.
06:55Now he starts with God is and God has spoken.
06:58When Paul was preaching in Acts 17, he started also with God is.
07:03But he was preaching to pagan philosophers who had no understanding of the Old Testament.
07:07So he couldn't really bring out a quotation of the Old Testament that they had no knowledge.
07:11He begins with where they are in Acts 17.
07:14And he begins with God is and he concludes with there is a judgment.
07:18So it's similar to Peter.
07:19This is a little different because the audience was different in Acts 17.
07:25So the 12 apostles, the eyewitnesses of the life and the death and the resurrection of
07:29Christ are there as a unified message.
07:32All 12 of them.
07:33Matthias is there.
07:34He's just not mentioned.
07:35But the 12 are there.
07:36We see.
07:37And then it says Peter addressed.
07:39Peter addressed the crowd.
07:41Addressed is the same word that we saw as utterance.
07:43And it's used in the Old Testament, the Hebrew, the Greek translation of the Old Testament,
07:48the Septuagint.
07:49It's used as prophesying, prophesying.
07:51So Peter is standing up and he's prophesying.
07:55You know, often we think that somehow prophesying is foretelling things that are yet to come.
08:03And that's partially true.
08:04We see that in the Old Testament.
08:05We see foretelling of things to come.
08:07But mostly we see, especially in the New Testament, what we see is forth telling, telling forth
08:13the word of God.
08:14He was prophesying.
08:15He pulled on the book of Joel and he's going to pull on David's psalm.
08:18So he's forth telling the word of God.
08:21He's prophesying.
08:24Technically speaking, what I'm doing right now is prophesying.
08:27I'm speaking forth the word of God.
08:30That is what Peter was doing that day.
08:31I'm speaking forth the word of God.
08:34They're not drunk.
08:35It's too early in the morning.
08:36No one's going to get drunk at this time of the day.
08:37In fact, they probably haven't even eaten yet.
08:39It said during these feast days, they waited till 10 a.m. to even eat.
08:42So they haven't eaten or drank anything at this point.
08:45They were under the influence, but not of wine.
08:48They were under the influence of the Holy Spirit for sure.
08:52So Peter says, listen, what you saw is in reference to this Old Testament prophecy that
08:56Joel gave us.
08:57So he goes back to the book of Joel and he pulls it out and he quotes it to them.
09:01I doubt he had any documents in front of him right now.
09:04This is the Holy Spirit giving him direction here.
09:07He quotes the verse.
09:10But really to understand what Joel is talking about, we got to put it in a context.
09:15What did Joel mean when he's writing to Israel in those days and when he wrote the book of
09:19Joel?
09:20Well, John Polhill actually puts in a good context for us.
09:24Joel's prophecy was originally given after a locust plague had ravaged the land.
09:29You can imagine a locust plague eating all the green stuff in the crops.
09:32You can imagine that, right?
09:34Creating a severe famine.
09:36Joel called the people to repentance, promising the restoration of their prosperity and going
09:41on to foresee the coming day of the Lord, the dawn of the messianic age when the Spirit
09:46will be poured out on all Israel.
09:48So that's the context of Joel.
09:49It was in the context of repentance, which he's going to call them to at the end as well.
09:53It's in the context of restoration, which all who believe, all who call on the name
09:57of the Lord will be saved.
09:59So Joel is a perfect, perfect text that the Spirit brings out right now for us.
10:05Here though, you notice there's things that are going, signs that are going on.
10:08You got the sun being darkened, the moon turned to blood.
10:11You've got wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth beneath.
10:14Now we do know at the crucifixion, it was dark for three hours.
10:18We know that, right?
10:19In the middle of the day, it got dark.
10:20It was a full moon.
10:21It could have been a blood moon.
10:22It could have been.
10:23We're not sure.
10:24We're not told in the scriptures whether it was.
10:26But there's other things that haven't happened yet.
10:29So you can kind of look at it like this.
10:30We see here a partial fulfillment of Joel's prophecy with a complete fulfillment later
10:35on.
10:37So he's opening up and he's giving us a long time span between the beginning and the end
10:42of that prophecy.
10:46In Matthew 24, Jesus talks about these signs in the heavens at his second coming.
10:52Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon
10:55will not give its light and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens
10:59will be shaken.
11:01Then will appear in heaven the sign of the son of man, then all the tribes of the earth
11:05will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power
11:09and great glory.
11:11So Joel's prophecy opens up with the church being established by the coming of the Holy
11:15Spirit and concludes with the second coming of Jesus Christ.
11:19Almost now a 2,000 year period, Joel's prophecy goes.
11:24The universal pouring out of the spirit demonstrated that the last days have come.
11:28We're in the last days right now.
11:30I know it's been almost 2,000 years, but we're in the last days.
11:33In fact, the last days, the time when God is working to restore all things to the resurrected
11:39Messiah, establishing his kingdom on the earth.
11:42He's going to bring it all together and establish this perfect kingdom where he sits on David's
11:46throne as king and the earth is going to be magnificent in this kingdom.
11:51Luke gives us an idea.
11:52I mean, excuse me, Isaiah gives us an idea what it's going to look like.
11:56The word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, it shall come to pass
12:02in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as
12:06the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted up above the hills and all the nations
12:11shall flow to it.
12:12This is Israel.
12:14And many people shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
12:17to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk
12:21in his paths.
12:23For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
12:27He shall judge between the nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples, and they
12:33shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
12:37Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
12:42Could you imagine what that day is going to be like?
12:46We are a warring group of people, human beings.
12:50We are selfish.
12:51We want our way.
12:52We need laban's realm.
12:54We need more room for our people.
12:56So we conquer and we kill.
12:58We're a warlike people.
13:00That day there will be no war.
13:02There'll be peace on this earth.
13:08When he comes, everything will be different.
13:11So the Holy Spirit has come, been poured out on this day.
13:14It's evidence that Jesus has been raised and glorified and exalted because he said the
13:19spirit can't come until he's exalted.
13:22In John chapter seven, this is what Jesus said, whoever believes in me, as the scripture
13:26has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
13:30Now this he said about the spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive for as
13:35yet the spirit had not been given because Jesus was not yet glorified.
13:40So we know by the pouring out of the spirit, he's been raised, exalted and glorified and
13:43poured out his spirit to us within us.
13:46Not restricted to social status, not men, not women, not slave, not free, all believers
13:51receive the Holy Spirit.
13:53All of us do.
13:54And then he says, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
13:57What does that mean to call on the name of the Lord?
14:00What the name?
14:01I mean, Jesus, God, I mean, what does it mean to call on the name of the Lord?
14:06William McDonald gives us a good example.
14:08The name of the Lord is an expression that includes all that the Lord is.
14:13That's to call on his name is to call on himself as a true object of faith and as the only
14:19way of salvation, to call on the name of the Lord.
14:23And what's interesting here is for Peter, Jesus Christ is Lord.
14:28But if we go back to the book of Joel, it would say, what did Joel call God?
14:33Look in Joel 2.32, we already read, but look at 2.32, and it shall come to pass that everyone
14:38who calls on the name of the Lord, L-O-R-D, small caps, that's Yahweh.
14:45Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved.
14:48For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there should be those who escaped as Yahweh has
14:52said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord Yahweh calls.
14:57So who is Peter likening to Yahweh, to God Almighty?
14:59Jesus.
15:00In Peter's mind, there is no difference.
15:02He is God Almighty.
15:04He's stating clearly that Jesus is God.
15:07So now this next section, it's a longer section, but it actually, I'm sorry, this is a shorter
15:13section, just a couple of verses.
15:14But it really lays out the guilt of the Jewish people.
15:17Look at verse 22.
15:19Men of Israel, okay, good, all Jews gathered around listening to them.
15:23Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, interesting, it doesn't say Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth,
15:28names him so there's no confusion who this Jesus is, of Nazareth, a man attested to you
15:33by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as
15:38you yourselves know.
15:39They were around, they heard about it, people are talking all about this Jesus guy.
15:44They know about it, that you yourselves know.
15:48This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified
15:53and killed by the hands of lawless men.
15:59This is God's plan, this is God's plan.
16:04Salvation is God's plan, it's not man's plan.
16:06Man didn't sit around and make it up.
16:08Man would like to make up a story where he has to do something to earn God's favor, whereas
16:13the truth of the gospel is that Jesus has done it for us and therefore we can receive
16:17God's favor.
16:19We have to remember that the cross of Christ was not a cosmic accident.
16:24It was God's divine plan for the redemption of mankind.
16:30He planned it, he put it into motion, he made it come to pass.
16:35What was interesting, he used the sinfulness of human beings to bring about his plan.
16:42That's crazy.
16:44Our sin, he can use to make something good out of it.
16:48Jesus is one appointed by God, shown by his mighty works, his signs, his wonders.
16:55You remember up at this time?
16:57After the resurrection, the soldiers go back to the Jewish leaders and say, hey, he's gone.
17:02And they said, listen, tell everyone the disciples stole him.
17:05If you get in trouble, we'll go to the governor, you'll be okay, you'll be safe.
17:09So they tell the story.
17:11Guess what?
17:12That story is still going around right now.
17:13People listening to Peter preach have heard that story and they're going, wait a second.
17:18Someone said that the disciples stole the body.
17:20You mean God raised him from the dead?
17:25These signs that he did, they pointed beyond themselves to a deeper reality.
17:31He did it, but it pointed to something deeper.
17:32He did the sign, but it wasn't about the sign.
17:34The sign wasn't necessarily the important thing, it's what it pointed to was so important.
17:41And here in this small little text, we see clearly the sovereignty of God and human responsibility
17:46together in one text.
17:48A definite plan, but you put him to death.
17:51Did you see that?
17:52God's definite plan, but you put him to death.
17:55God's sovereignty and man's responsibility wrapped up right here in this verse.
18:00Stanley Porter wrote, Peter's declaration articulates a major paradox of the Christian
18:05life.
18:06Jesus's death occurred as a result of the plan and foreknowledge of God, but it was
18:11the free and sinful acts of human beings that executed that plan.
18:16It's God at work in this world.
18:17It was his plan.
18:18He initiated, he was bringing it forth, but he's using the evil of people to accomplish
18:23his plan.
18:25Don't forget that when evil enters into your life.
18:29I know it's not good, but yet all things work together for the good to those who love him,
18:35to those who are called according to his purpose.
18:40So Jews and lawless men, that's people without the law, without the Torah.
18:44So Jews and Gentiles are guilty of the death of Jesus.
18:48That means, guess what?
18:50All of us are guilty of the death of Jesus.
18:53There was a time in the middle ages that the Jews were persecuted because they alone were
18:57to hold the blame for killing the Messiah.
18:59So somehow the church thought it was good to persecute Jews in that day because they
19:03killed the Messiah.
19:04Maybe they didn't read Acts.
19:09We killed the Messiah, Jews and Gentiles alike, not just the Jews, but as Gentiles as well.
19:17The crucifixion was not a cosmic accident, but rather the predetermined plan of God.
19:23Remember he made a promise in the Garden of Eden.
19:26After they were kicked out, they were kicked out of the garden, he made a promise.
19:29One is going to come to crush the head of Satan.
19:32He promised them that redemption would come one day, it was his plan from the beginning.
19:37He carried it out and he brought his son into the world.
19:39Even the prophet Isaiah talks about this.
19:42Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with
19:46the strong because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors.
19:52He was numbered with them, but he wasn't a transgressor himself.
19:56Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors.
20:00It's been God's plan from the beginning to bring the Messiah into the world, to bring
20:05redemption and salvation to us.
20:10Now Jesus, the leader, unto life by the virtue of his resurrection.
20:15This is a little longer section here, it's from 24 down to 36, he kind of concludes the
20:20sermon in 36.
20:22God raised him up, okay, so God had a plan, you killed him, God raised him up, losing
20:30the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
20:34And then Peter quotes a psalm, for David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before
20:39me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken.
20:43Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced, my flesh also will dwell in hope.
20:48For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or to Sheol, the underworld, or let your Holy
20:53One see corruption.
20:55You have made known to me the paths of life and you will make me full of gladness with
21:00your presence.
21:01Then he applies it, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David
21:06that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.
21:10The people listening to him could point to where David's tomb was, oh yeah, that's his
21:13tomb right over there.
21:14He's still in the tomb, his body saw corruption.
21:16So it's obviously someone else he's talking about, not himself.
21:21Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he
21:25would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection
21:30of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor does his flesh see corruption.
21:36His body never corrupted, although it was in the tomb for three days and three nights.
21:39This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses, the 12th.
21:45Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father
21:48the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and
21:53hearing.
21:54God is fulfilling his promise.
21:56He has exercised his power in raising Jesus from the dead and seating him at his right
22:00hand.
22:01For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord,
22:06sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
22:10Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him, that's
22:14Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
22:21So here we see God's power at work.
22:24God does not leave men condemned, but through his mighty power raised Jesus from the dead
22:29and seated him at his right hand, promising all who believe resurrection from the dead
22:34and life eternal by the power of God.
22:39It says, eluce the pangs of death, losing the pangs of death.
22:43That word is actually three other times used in the New Testament, always dealing with
22:48birth pains, a woman in labor, birth pains.
22:52And so someone has said that the tomb was a womb from which Jesus was born in resurrection
22:59glory, losing the pangs of death, pangs of childbirth.
23:04Tomb was a womb from which Jesus was born in resurrection glory.
23:11Verse 13, talking about the resurrection, associating it with his son.
23:16This he has fulfilled to us, their children by raising Jesus as also it is written in
23:21the second Psalm, you are my son, today I have begotten you.
23:24The idea of begotten again, idea of a child.
23:30So Peter now takes this and applies it to Jesus.
23:32It's not about David, David wrote it, but it was about somebody else that David was
23:36writing it about.
23:37He wasn't writing it about himself.
23:39The Psalm is a prophecy of David pointing to a descendant, one coming after him, who
23:43would sit on David's throne and be king on David's throne.
23:47He's pointing to that one that's coming.
23:49It wasn't about himself because we, look, his tomb was right there, his body's decayed
23:53already.
23:54It wasn't him.
23:55He was talking about somebody else.
23:56He was talking about one of his descendants that would come after him.
24:01It's exactly what the angel told Mary in Luke 1, and the angel said to her, do not be afraid,
24:09for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a
24:13son and you shall call his name Jesus.
24:16He will be great and will be called the son of the most high, and the Lord God will give
24:20to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever
24:25and of his kingdom there will be no end.
24:28So this is the one that David was talking about, the Messiah that would sit on his,
24:32a descendant of him that would sit on his throne, ruling the house of Israel.
24:37Samuel talked about this, 2 Samuel, when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with
24:42your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body, and
24:46I will establish his kingdom.
24:48He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
24:52And the psalmist said, the Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back.
24:58One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
25:01So he's looking forward and talking about the Messiah, one of his descendants that was
25:05to come.
25:07He will not leave him in the underground in Sheol or Hades, a place of the dead.
25:12He will not.
25:13He will be raised from the dead.
25:14His body will not see corruption.
25:17Death's power was overcome in the resurrection of Jesus.
25:23Power was broken.
25:26Jesus's humanity allowed him to experience physical death, however, his full deity and
25:31sinless life made it impossible for death to hold him.
25:35Death holds us sinners, but it can't hold one who is sinless.
25:39Death and sin go hand in hand, but the one who is sinless, death has no hold on that
25:43one.
25:44He cannot hold him.
25:45And believer, if you are in Christ today, death has no power over you.
25:49You do not need to fear death.
25:51You say, well, I don't like the mode of why I might die.
25:53Well, that may be the case, but death itself, we do not need to fear ever.
25:59He has conquered death.
26:01The resurrection is the Father's confirmation that the sacrificial work of Jesus was accepted
26:06as finished, never to be repeated again, a one-time sacrifice affecting all who will
26:12believe, bringing eternal life to them.
26:15The Father says, I approve.
26:17He offered his sinless blood into the heavenly tabernacle, giving us freedom and forgiveness
26:22of sins.
26:23I love that.
26:25In the old covenant, it ends with, and he shall remember your sins no more.
26:33God's not going to hold our sins against us because our Savior paid for our sins.
26:39David knew that God would overcome death through the Messiah.
26:42And then this last part here in 34 and 35 is Psalm 110.1, which is the most often quoted
26:49Old Testament passage in the New Testament, Psalm 110.1.
26:54And Jesus said that that refers to him, the Messiah, in Mark 12, that Psalm 110 points
27:00to the Messiah.
27:01And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, how can the scribe say that the Christ is
27:06the son of David?
27:07He himself in the Holy Spirit declared, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand
27:12until I put your enemies under your feet.
27:14David himself calls him Lord.
27:16So how is he his son?
27:18And the great throng heard him gladly.
27:20So the Messiah is associated with Psalm 110.1.
27:23That's the Messiah we're talking about.
27:25Exalted to the right hand of God, the right hand of power, of glory, of intercession for
27:30us.
27:32Then there's going to be a waiting time between the exaltation and the glorification of the
27:36Messiah and his return to punish the enemies.
27:39We're already in almost 2000 years before the second coming of Christ hasn't happened
27:43yet.
27:45He concludes the sermon basically in verse number 36.
27:49It's a conclusion of the sermon.
27:50He's summarizing and concluding it and basically they're standing there and I don't know if
27:55their mouth were open like, but they were definitely struck deeply in their soul.
28:01They were under emotional distress is what the text says of what they just heard.
28:08God is at work in their hearts at this point.
28:12Look at verse number 37.
28:15Now when they heard this, they were cut to heart and said to Peter and to the rest of
28:20the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
28:25And Peter said to them, repent and be baptized.
28:27Every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will
28:32receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children, for
28:36all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord or God calls to himself.
28:41And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them.
28:44So he said other things that are not recorded here.
28:47He began to exhort them saying, save yourself from this crooked generation.
28:52So those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3000 souls.
28:59God's promise.
29:01God is and God has spoken.
29:03His word is true and all of his promises are trustworthy.
29:06He says, believe the promise and you will have life.
29:09Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved.
29:12God is at work in the people in this deep sense of guilt comes in the, you ever been
29:17to a church that has an altar call?
29:19We don't have altar calls here.
29:20I mean, at the end of the service, you have an altar call.
29:21People come forward and they can pray.
29:24Peter didn't even offer an altar call.
29:26They have their own altar call.
29:27They're going, what are we going to do to get, can you imagine preaching and all of
29:30a sudden people just start rushing up here?
29:31What do I got to do to get saved?
29:33That would be great.
29:34That's what's happening here is the spirit of God is so at work at these people.
29:38They're so emotionally distressed in their heart.
29:40They're going, what are we going to do to be saved?
29:43They initiated the altar call.
29:46Verse 38 is an interesting verse.
29:48It literally, if the literal reading of it, it's kind of awkward in English, but the literal
29:52reading goes, repent and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for slash
29:59on the basis of the forgiveness of your sins is the idea kind of get, it's kind of sounds
30:05like for forgiveness.
30:06I'm baptized and then because I'm baptized, I get forgiveness of sins.
30:09That's not what Peter's saying.
30:11He's using the word.
30:12It's a preposition in Greek.
30:13We don't need to go into that, but he's not using the sense that, oh yeah, baptism brings
30:17forgiveness of sins.
30:18That's not what he's saying at all.
30:22To repent, he tells them to repent in Greek means to change your mind, to think differently.
30:30He's calling on them.
30:31You thought he was a criminal hung on a cross, accursed by God.
30:35I'm asking you to think differently about this Jesus.
30:38He is who he claimed to be.
30:40He did what he said he was going to do.
30:41He fulfills the promise of the prophets in the Old Testament.
30:44You need to think differently of this Jesus.
30:46He's not accursed of God.
30:47He is blessed forever of God.
30:49Think differently, repent of your sins.
30:53William Baker wrote, repentance is then not an act of reformation on their part.
30:59Sinners are helpless to do this, but an acknowledgement of a sin of which they could never possibly
31:05make any correction except to admit its reality.
31:10Repent, repent, think differently of Jesus.
31:15Confess that you thought he was a criminal, confess that you thought he was accursed,
31:18confess that you thought he was a blasphemer, and believe that he is the Son of God crucified
31:25for you, buried, risen again, exalted to the right hand of the Father, and promising to
31:29come back again.
31:31Change your mind about him.
31:34So they were going to be baptized.
31:37Forgiveness of sins is the grounds for being baptized.
31:40It doesn't bring forgiveness of sins through baptism.
31:45Baptism is a public visible sign that a person is identified with Jesus and the promises
31:50of the new covenant.
31:51You can imagine to call on the Jews to be baptized.
31:55Number one, Jews don't get baptized.
31:57They have washings, but only the proselytes coming into the Jew would be baptized.
32:01But he's calling on the Jews to be baptized.
32:03In other words, be identified with this criminal, the one who hung on a cross and was called
32:08accursed.
32:09Be identified with him.
32:10Oh, I'm not sure I want that.
32:12Yeah, that's what we're asking you to do.
32:14Your baptism is identifying you with that one that you called accursed, the one you
32:18called that God had forsaken.
32:22You can imagine for a Jew, it would be tough to be baptized.
32:25Your family's going to disown you.
32:28You may lose your job in a Jewish community.
32:30It even happens today for those Jews who believe on Jesus Christ today, their families
32:34disown them.
32:36So to be identified with this one who was called accursed would be a big deal for a
32:40Jewish mind.
32:42Imar Dehan wrote, in the early days of the church, baptism was a declaration that the
32:49believer was definitely identifying himself with that group of people who were called
32:54Christians and who were despised and hated.
32:57To be a Christian meant something.
32:59To identify yourself with those who were called Christians meant persecution, maybe death.
33:04It meant being ostracized from your family, shunned by friends.
33:07And the one act which was the final declaration of this identification was baptism.
33:13As long as a man gathered with Christians, he was tolerated.
33:16But when once he submitted to baptism, he declared to all the world, I belong to this
33:21despised group.
33:23And immediately he was persecuted, hated and despised.
33:27In baptism, therefore, the believer entered into the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ.
33:32A person might be a believer and keep it strictly a secret and thus avoid unpleasantness and
33:36suffering.
33:37But once he submitted to public baptism, he had burned his bridges behind them.
33:41So you can imagine how big of a deal this was for Jews to be identified with that one
33:44that hung on the cross.
33:48Peter is just fulfilling what Jesus told him to do before he ascended.
33:51Remember in Matthew 28, this is what he told the disciples to do.
33:55Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Father and of the Son
34:00and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
34:04And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age.
34:07He's just doing what Jesus asked him to do.
34:10Forgiveness, forgiveness is not God overlooking sin, but is about being graciously loosed
34:18from the penalty of sin by God's grace and God's mercy.
34:23He's not going to hold it against us anymore.
34:25That record of debt was nailed to the cross.
34:29When he pulls up our record of debt against him, it says paid in full by the blood of
34:32Jesus.
34:38This crooked generation, crooked generation, I don't know.
34:43He called his first century group a crooked generation.
34:46I think we live in a crooked generation too.
34:50Crooked generation was Old Testament language for a generation that is stubborn, rebellious,
34:54and not faithful to God, a crooked generation.
34:57And we call people to salvation, we call them out of a crooked generation for sure.
35:02Psalm 78 talks about this, and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and
35:06rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not set fast, whose spirit was not
35:11faithful to God, a crooked generation.
35:16Those who received his word, in other words, those who heard his word and believed on his
35:20word were baptized.
35:21This excludes infant baptism.
35:23An infant cannot hear the word and follow and believe the word, an infant cannot do
35:28that.
35:29This is a believer's baptism.
35:30Children can be baptized because they understand, but an infant cannot understand, excludes
35:34infant baptism.
35:36And it appears in the New Testament, whenever I read the New Testament, immediately following
35:40salvation the believer was baptized.
35:43There's no waiting period, it's like that day they're baptized, on this day they're
35:46going to get baptized.
35:47There are places where we read in the New Testament they get saved and they're baptized
35:50on that day.
35:51And I'm thinking, you know, some of you here have been saved but never baptized.
35:55And now we're going to have in June, June 8th, an opportunity for you to be baptized.
35:58And there's a sign-up sheet right over there, you can sign your name up and say, I want
36:02to be identified with this despised group of people.
36:05I want to be persecuted and hated.
36:08No one smiled.
36:09One smile, okay.
36:12I want to be identified with Jesus.
36:14I want to say, I'm his, he has saved me.
36:17I want to submit to baptism.
36:223,000 people were saved, 3,000 people.
36:25Just what we talked about last week, the day of the giving of the law, 3,000 people died.
36:30Day of Pentecost, 3,000 people were saved.
36:32So this is great.
36:33But what is the Christian message?
36:36What did Peter put together here in this sermon that you and I can take away when we're talking
36:40to other people?
36:41What is the Christian message?
36:42Well, we start with God is, he exists, and God has spoken.
36:49You say, well, they may be an atheist.
36:51Yeah, maybe.
36:52But nevertheless, that's what we start at, God is, and God has spoken.
36:57And then we move on and we talk about Jesus.
36:59You and I have read the Gospels enough.
37:01We know what Jesus did.
37:02We know the works that he did and the miracles that he did.
37:05So we can talk about the person of Jesus, how God sent his son into the world.
37:09So we talk about the person of Jesus.
37:12And then we talk about it was God's plan, this salvation.
37:14Man didn't make this up.
37:15This was God's plan.
37:16And God intended for this to happen, that Jesus would die on the cross for us.
37:20So we talk about the plan of God.
37:22It was not some cosmic accident.
37:24And then we talk about the power of God, that God raised Jesus from the dead, exalted him,
37:29seated him in his right hand, sent the Holy Spirit down, the power of God at work in this
37:33world.
37:34And then we talk about the promises of God, the promise of God.
37:38And the promise of God, the promise of salvation also has to do with judgment.
37:42This is a part that you and I don't like to talk to people about, to help them to understand
37:47that their sins will be judged by a holy God unless they are forgiven by him.
37:52We don't like to talk about judgment, but we have to.
37:54Peter did it and Paul did it in Acts 17.
37:58And then we talk about repentance.
38:00You need to change your mind about Jesus.
38:02You thought one way about him, now you need to change your mind about him and think differently
38:06about him.
38:07You need to repent.
38:09So when we share the gospel, we try to understand the state of our audience.
38:13Where are they at?
38:15Do they have some sort of biblical background that we can call upon?
38:18Do they have no biblical background like in Acts 17 where you just have to start with
38:22God is and God has spoken?
38:24We have to know our audience that we're talking to.
38:26Cold calling is hard.
38:28It's better when you know the person so you can at least know where they're at to begin.
38:33So we always begin with God is, move to the person and life of the work of Jesus as resurrection,
38:38speak about the coming judgment against sin, and end with a call to repentance.
38:42That's basically what we're to do.
38:45And as we share the gospel message with friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors, like in
38:49the book of Acts, the Lord will add day by day those who are being saved.
38:54He saves people.
38:55We don't.
38:57We are witnesses of what he's done.
38:59And we just tell people what he's done.
39:01Only God can save people.
39:02We leave it in his hands.
39:04He adds day by day those who are being saved.
39:06Let's pray.
39:07Father, we thank you.
39:09Peter gave us such a great example of how we can talk to other people about Jesus.
39:15That we have some sort of plan when we're talking to them, that we can talk about these
39:20things and we ask that you would open up their hearts, just like the Jews that day that were
39:24cut deeply, emotional distress, that they said, what am I going to do?
39:28How do we get saved?
39:29What should we do with this information?
39:32But act upon their hearts as we tell them about Jesus so that they can be saved as well.
39:37Call them to salvation, redeem them, save them.
39:40Thank you for letting us be your witnesses.
39:42And we're asking that you would day by day add to your kingdom, add to your family.
39:48We pray in Jesus' name.
39:49Amen.
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