Message 6 - The Church - No Rejects

Acts 2:13-41

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Good morning, church family. Good to see you this morning. Uh, we're gonna begin Acts chapter 2 uh in a few moments. So if you want to go ahead and get there in your Bibles, your devices, uh right before we get into this, so I want to just remind you to put on the calendar August the 23rd. That's a Sunday. And after the second service on that Sunday, uh we are going to have uh baptism uh up in uh Central City and uh followed by just a fun barbecue and just fun time as a church family together. And and just again, if if you are a follower of Christ, if you invited Christ have invited Christ to apply what he did on the cross to your sins, then you are uh uh forgiven uh as the promise as was promised. You are part of God's family. Uh he is your heavenly father now. And one of the things Jesus asked his followers to do uh before he went back to be with the Father is was that when we've made that decision to be willing to be public about it, and uh baptism is is uh been set up for us, and and we're asked uh we've been asked by Jesus to do that. So if you've never been baptized, then uh I would really encourage you to to do that. And if you want more information about it, I'd love to sit down and talk to you about it and uh just what's involved and and why it's an important thing to do. But get get uh August 23rd on your calendars because that's gonna be a really good afternoon for all of us, and and uh have a have a lot of fun together and a special time together. So, Acts 2. Uh we're gonna jump back in. We are we have been looking, examining together the very first day of what is called the church, which we are a part of now, or the church age. In fact, to put that first slide up, uh Josh, if you don't mind, uh this is uh one artist's diagram, and I I think it lines up with what I see in prophecy. So you see that cross, uh that's that's the beginning of the church. Jesus died on the cross, then he told his disciples, he rose again, he spent some time with his disciples, then he told his disciples, about 120 of them, that uh he was going to go back to be with the Father. And when he went back to the Father, they would should go into Jerusalem and wait for this very special gift that he'd been talking to them about for uh months now, getting them uh prepped and ready, that uh uh and so the gift of the the Holy Spirit in a new and special way. So he said, go back, pray, wait, and uh uh so that's what they have done. Jesus has gone back to be the Father. They're now, they've been sitting uh in this whole house up in the supper room, 120 of them, praying and waiting, and then it took place. It happened. The the Holy Spirit uh came upon them. And so that was the beginning of what is the church age, or the beginning of the church, which we're a part of. Uh, if you notice in that in the that you have that ark uh that ends up on what's called the rapture, uh in and I believe that is what we are looking forward to. And then in the lower part, there's these seven uh little certain little uh arcs, and uh those are uh I uh the seven churches that are mentioned in Revelation chapter two and chapter four, which uh a lot of theologians, uh I'm not a theologian, but I included myself, believe that probably represents different periods of times in the church age, and we would be in that last, I think, and and a number of us too as well, that little last ark, which is the church of the Odyssey, the church that's kind of got lukewarm, and and uh uh and we would probably be in that time now, and you can even see he they've marked on there some of the prophecies and some of the things that we've taken taken place in uh like in 1948 when Israel, as promised in God's word, actually became a nation, and uh uh Israelites began to go, the Jews began to go back to their nation, uh which is exactly lines up with the scripture as well, some other events. So we're in that church age and we look forward to the rapture. In fact, if you were to go to Revelation chapter 4, uh right after this ends, in in uh verse 1 of chapter 4, uh we never hear the church again. And that verse begins by saying, and they were we were called up, uh, which is actually, well, you do not find the word rapture in the Bible because it's in the Latin Bible, uh, and that's what the rap and rapture means to be caught up or to be called up, and that's exactly how chapter 4, verse 1 of Revelation starts. So we we believe I believe we're in this period of time, but what we've been looking at is the very first day of the very first church, and that's the day that the Holy Spirit, as promised, came upon uh the believers and indwelled them as he does to every believer since. One of the things why I I kind of I wanted to just remind us of this again is uh when the rapture takes place, the church is taken out of earth. The Christians, when I say the church, I mean the Christians, followers of Christ, are taken out, taken out of earth. Uh and that's significant because that marks then the beginning of what's the seven years of tribulation. Why is there such a terrible time after that? Well, because part of our responsibility, why, when when you and I become a believer, why doesn't God just take us home to be with him? Well, because he's left us here. We are we are supposed to be uh having an influence on the world. We're supposed to, by our influence, uh by the Holy Spirit working through us, helping hold at bay Satan and what he would like to accomplish if he had free reign. And uh and so that's our responsibility as Christians to represent God in the midst of uh a satanic world, a dark world, and uh and so and I think that's important for us to to recognize, you know, you know, say, oh, you mean I'm not just here to you know raise a family and and uh make a living? No. If you're a follower of Christ, we have a responsibility to be that that light and to be those individuals that are countering the lies and the deception and and the harm that Satan is trying to do. So wherever you and I are as followers of God, uh where we work, where we shop, where we volunteer, where we recreate, uh when we're on vacation, we are always in that spot, placed by God to represent Him. And so we're and I and I tell us that because we're we're never we're always on call. Uh, you know, uh we should never, we should never relax and say to ourselves, well, you know, I don't have to be a Christ follower in this circumstance. And I can I can chill now. I can no, we're always there to represent our Lord. That's why we are here, and so we we always need to keep that in mind. I was listening to an interview this week uh regarding uh a delay uh John MacArthur, uh one of the great preachers of our time and theologians of our time. And and uh, you know, just uh if you've never heard him preach, you need to get on the internet and and listen to some of his message. Just uh great expositor of the word of God in my library on my shelves. I have almost every commentary uh he ever wrote. Uh and uh but someone was asking, because if you have ever watched him, he he's a pretty serious guy. He and uh uh so someone was interviewing someone that knew him well, Al Moeller, and they said that to Al Moller, I said, was he always like that? I mean, when you was there ever those times where he kind of let his hair red down, you know, and and uh uh Moeller's response was, no, he was always pretty serious when it came to be to God and his relationship with God and and representing God. He he never really did uh relax and say, Well, I can let that my hair down in that regard. And I think that's that's the way it should be for all of us. So we're back here. Uh we're on that day. Now, remember, uh, we talked about the fact that uh at that particular moment when this wonderful thing took place, the Holy Spirit came upon those 120 believers. Uh uh, it it was an amazing thing and it made a huge commotion. These it talks about tons of fires coming upon them and the sound of a wind. And the city of Jerusalem, right at that moment, was uh full uh of people, uh not the people that lived there, but it but it had grown uh many times the regular size because it was one of three festivals uh that Jews uh based on on uh their their beliefs and the things that God had told them, that they would they were called back to Jerusalem. They would three times a year, they were uh by the law of of the Moses and the Pharisees, they were said told if they were able to come back to Jerusalem uh to celebrate. Uh one was uh on the uh the Passover, they'd come back and and they would celebrate the fact that God had delivered them uh from Egypt and from their slavery to Egypt. And uh and it was that period of time when Jesus actually died on the cross. So when the Passover came around every year, they would all come back. And then 40 days later, they would come back for what was called the Shavat, uh, which was the beginning of the setting of the harvest, uh, the bringing of their first fruits to God. And uh so they would come back and celebrate that time as well, uh, which is what they were back in Jerusalem at this particular time. And then there was one more feast later on called Sakat, which was the end of the harvest time, and and that's where they would also celebrate the fact that for 40 years God cared for them as they wandered in the wilderness. So here they're all back in Jerusalem. All these Jews have come back to celebrate the time of Shavat, and uh that's why there's such a huge cloud. And they're from all, although they're all Jews, the Jews have been dispersed over the years through persecution and a lot of things. And so they've been grown up in different territories, learning different languages, and so they would come back to Jerusalem, but you'd have a have a lot of languages and nationalities, which was what was so amazing because when they when they heard that commotion uh and this wind uh all over the city, it's they all kind of said they could tell where it was coming from, so they all headed to that room where those 120 were, and that's what we've been reading about. I was I was uh sharing an early service this morning. You know, I got that calendar that my wife got me this year that has a bunch of useless facts. Well, one of the useless facts this week was on Wednesday. I had to check. Three years ago on on this past Wednesday, a Taylor Swift had a concert, and that concert got so loud that it actually registered 2.3 on the Richter scale. Uh well, you can imagine all you if you live there anywhere near the stadium, you heard what was going on. Well, that's what's happened here. Any everyone in Jerusalem, they hear this noise. It's an amazing thing, and and so they all crowds move towards where they hear the noise coming from, and so they show up outside the house where the 120 are, and then and then uh we read uh this in our Bibles. Uh down to verse 14, chapter 2 says, uh Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and addressed the crowd. Fellow Jews, and and all of you who live in Jerusalem. Some of them lived in Jerusalem, a lot of them just come into Jerusalem for the celebration. Into Jerusalem. Let me explain this to you. Listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you supposed. It's only nine in the morning. So Peter gets up now, the crowds have gathered, he gets up to speak, and we know that what has just taken place is as the 120 began to speak, that they're all they're talking about Christ and Jesus and all these Jews that have gathered from all these nations, they hear them speaking, they recognize that they're Galileans. In fact, they would have said it this way, they're ignorant Galileans, and yet they hear them speaking their own languages, and they're amazed because they know they they didn't know their language. And so it's the first miracle that we see the Holy Spirit doing through his followers at this moment. And so somebody, some character out there said, Oh, they're just drunk. And so Peter gets up and says, Okay, first of all, let's let's settle that. It's only nine in the morning. You know, the liquor stores aren't even open yet. So that so they aren't drunk. And besides, I don't know that the what the bottle is that they would have bought that said, drink this and you'll speak in unknown your languages that you haven't learned. Uh but anyway, so he settles that right off the bat. He says, They're not drunk. Uh and uh, you know, they're there, this is something that that God has done. Uh, and if you look back in thir verse 13, you'll see what is happening there. And you know, it kind of reminds me of I'm just kind of amazed today at some of the conspiracy that are going around that uh what people when they don't want to believe what is obviously the truth, the stories that come up, well it's this this has happened or that has happened, and and I listen to some of this stuff and I say, you know, just look at what took place, you can see what happened. But anyway, they're coming, trying to come up with any reason but the real reason, which is God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, has done an amazing thing here. And so then Peter goes on, and the very first day of the very first church, at the beginning of the church age, Peter gets to give the first message. Which I'm gonna come back to that in a few moments. Uh, but uh so he starts to he begins to preach this message, and he starts by going down to back to one of their prophets, the the prophet of Joel. And and he and he and I'm not gonna read down through all the verses there, you can check them out on your your own later. But he shares he shares Prophet Joel, 400 years before this moment, talked about this moment. He said, There's gonna come this day, and and when the Holy Spirit's gonna come upon uh the followers of God and do wonderful and miraculous things. But now I want to jump down to verse 22 and read what Peter as he goes on what he says next. He says, Men of Israel, listen to this. Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited to you, to accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourself know. Uh I want to pause for a moment just and think uh bring think through something through with you. You know, it's interesting. A lot of people assume that when it comes to God and the church and the history of the world, that that God has always done miracles and signs and wonders and and and it's right, he has always done miracles. Uh this of all churches, we we know that's true. I certainly was a recipient of one of the miracles because of this church family's prayers. So we know that he's he does miracles, but it has only been in in specific and short segments of history where where God has done miracles and wonders and signs through specific individuals. Uh uh for instance, uh uh we go quite a ways into the history of the world before we have the first period of time, which is when Moses comes on the scene. Moses comes on the scene and and God gives to Moses the law that is to be passed on to the Jews. On top of that, he uses Moses to lead the Israelites out of uh Israel and out of the slavery. And in that period of time, which is only about four decades, Moses does these powerful miracles and wonders and signs which uh which which uh settle in the hearts of the Jews that he is in fact the spokesman for God for that period of time, that they should follow him. And then when he gives them the law, that God there they're they could they draw the conclusion we need to pay attention to this law because obviously Moses is God's man right now. That's about 40 years that that lasts, and and then we go through quite a while before we have miracles again, and in fact, a long enough period that pretty soon the Jews begin to wander away from God, they begin to follow other gods. Pretty soon they're per they particularly line up under the teaching of Bel, and uh the king at Israel, the king of Israel by that time is a guy named Ahab, and he marries this woman named Jezebel, who gets them even more involved in worshiping Bel and other gods. And then God sends this individual named Elijah in to draw the people back to God and to demonstrate uh powerfully that Bel really isn't a god, and these other gods aren't really gods, and and he does that uh by doing some miraculous things, some amazing things, uh raises a little boy from the dead. Uh the they have this this uh this presentation on the mountain where where the prophets of Bel are supposed to call fire down and they do all these things, they cut themselves and they beat beat on themselves, all trying to make it so that their God will show himself uh that he's powerful, mighty. Nothing happens. And then remember, Elijah builds an altar and pours water on it and gets on his knees and says, God, show these people that you're the true God. And he and the fire comes down and consumes it. And and then Elijah then there's does that, and then he passes that mantle on to a guy named Elisha, and we have a few more years, but then the miracles go away for hundreds of years. We our individuals doing miracles go away. We go through the end of the Old Testament, and then we move into the New Testament, and a baby is born. And this baby grows to be an adult, and this baby we know is Jesus, but he's the Messiah. But but the people don't know that yet. And so God, for about a three-year period now, allows Jesus, presents Jesus to the people by miracles and wonders and signs, proves that this is my son, and you need to listen to them. And he is the Messiah and and is demonstrated vividly through the power for the healings and and the and the amazing things as Jesus feeds 4,000 and feeds the 5,000, the 4,000, and just on and on in the resurrection and the whole thing. And then we have one more period of time uh to up to date, where then the through has the apostles, and the through the apostles he is writing the New Testament scriptures. And so the people will know and believe, yes, these are the words that these men are teaching you about God are from God, they do the same thing. So it's really not always, it's periods of times, and and now we are not. Does God still do miracles? Yes, he does. But with individuals on a regular, we don't see that. So so we're here. We have one of those tremendous miracles, and Peter gets up, and he's now talking to this people and sharing with them what is going on here in this very first message of the church age. So then Peter goes on. Look at verse 23. This man talking about Jesus was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. A very interesting verse here that kind of involves a little of an age-old debate among religious scholars. Uh you know, uh we talk about the sovereignty of God, and and in that conversation, uh often there the conversation of predestination will come up. Uh the idea that, I mean, predestination, that that everything is uh falls into God's sovereign plan. But especially when we get in that conversation, lots of times it revolves around individuals and our salvation, and the Bible says that God predestined you and I, if you're a follower of His, He predestined you to become a follower of His. He chose you before the foundations of the earth. And and uh uh so then and then there's uh some in the middle of this teaching, there's some who who take this teaching, I think, too far from what I see in scripture. You know, so he predestined some for heaven and some for hell. I I struggle with that. And and and then uh in that conversation, I've I've seen some say, well, when when God predestines someone to become a follower of Christ, He He doesn't do it based on what He knows about them. You know, uh He He does it, I mean, uh just based on, he just goes down through the list and He says, You're going to heaven, you're going to hell. Well, what I see in this verse isn't that's not the way it works. He predestines by His foreknowledge. Uh you know, I you can't just say that God, well, God, when it comes to choosing the one that's gonna follow you, you gotta turn off the foreknowledge switch. No, he he he's he all that's tied together. And honestly, you know, uh the argument against that is well, if he's looking at Paul Kennedy and he chooses Paul to become one of his children based on what he sees Paul doing down the road, uh then it's based on works. No. The fact that God, by his grace, gave me a brain. That at least can look at Romans 1 says the evidence around me and say, I think there must be a God. And if there is a God, I want to know the God. That's the grace of God. Even every little bit of it's the grace of God. So anyway, he he says, no, when with this, when all the things be taking place, and this moment when the Holy Spirit comes upon was all part of God's plan and his plan and his foreknowledge. But then he goes on with these people and adds to that, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by kneeling him to the cross. Can you imagine how that must have impacted that crowd at that moment? Honestly, probably a lot of them were there that day when the Pharisees began to work up the crowd and shout, crucify him, crucify him, and and and maybe some of them joined in on that call, crucify him, crucify him. But they had really never put the dots together that it laid at their feet, that it was because of them, that he had actually been beaten, as Christoph talked about in class this morning, to the point of unrecognizable, that he was hung on that cross, that he died, that it was because of them. And so Peter is putting these dots together for them and helping them realize that they're responsible for that moment when he. And I can hear them saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. I didn't do that. I didn't nail him the cross. I didn't condemn him to die. I didn't stick the spear in his thigh. It wasn't me. And Peter would say, Yes, it was you. Because it was on your behalf that he had to go to the cross, that he went to the cross. And there's something you and I need to come to terms with, and probably everyone in this room has. We may not have been there, and we may not have been a part of the crowds, and we didn't yell along with them, crucify him, crucify him, but it was my sins that put him there. And it was your sins. The prophecy, 600 years before the cross, made this statement. He said, But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Later on in the New Testament, Paul would write, he was delivered over to death for our sins and raised for our justifications. It was our sins that put him on the cross. Actually, that's wrong. It was his love that put him on the cross. It was our sins that made him necessary. And that's why it's so important for you and I to come to the realization that we need a Savior. And what he did on the cross was so that we could have a hope, so that our destiny could be changed, so that our sins could be forgiven. Paul right, or Peter goes on to say in verse 24, but God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it is impossible for death to keep its hold. The cross wasn't the end of the story, it was the beginning. Now, we're going to stop there this morning. I jumped down towards the end, down to verse 27. At the end of this message, an amazing thing happens. Peter preaches this message, and it says that verse 37, when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the apostles, What shall we do? It dawned on them the truth of what Peter said. But I told you I want to come back to Peter. And this is what struck me. As I prepare for this message, why on earth is God allowing Peter this amazing moment? Peter is getting to preach the very first message of the very first church of this thing called the church age. Peter. Peter, who was a constant thorn in the sight of Jesus. Peter whose mouth and compulsiveness was always getting him into trouble. Peter, who was arrogant and quite certain he was braver and better than any of the other guys, and not afraid to say so. Peter, who, like often happens when it comes to braggards, turned out in fact to be the biggest coward of them all. Not only did he not stand up for Jesus, but he pretended to have nothing to do with Jesus. And he gets the privilege of preaching the very first message of this brand new, wonderful age. And then actually seeing such a remarkable response that over the thousands of people come to Christ that day. Paul Kennedy, who about fifty-five years ago, found himself hiding under a bush from the police for doing stupid and destructive things with some of his buddies. Paul Kennedy, whose best friend Rick, at the time, would end up later in prison for killing someone over drugs. Paul Kennedy, who was cowardly, and on many occasions denied Jesus because I was embarrassed to be connected to a dad who was a preacher. In spite of all that, and much more, here I am fifty-some years later getting the privileged week after week to tell people that God loves them and teach his word. How could that possibly happen? Because with God, there are no rejects. But I still find that a lot of Christians spend a lot of time, week after week, thinking, yeah, I'm saved. But I got nothing to offer God. He can't use me. My history has set me apart from ever being able to do and see God do great things through me. And if you're saying that to yourself, you're lying to yourself. There are no rejects. God can use Peter. If God can use Paul Kennedy, He can use you. And especially I want to speak to you if for some reason you've never accepted that gift, that offer of forgiveness. Maybe again, because you've convinced yourself that the things in your life disqualify you from that kind of love. That's a lie from the pit of hell. God loves you, and he wants you to be his child, and he's offering you today forgiveness and adoption into his family and a place in his home for eternity. Don't let the enemy deceive you. Don't put it off anymore. Let's pray. Lord, thanks for your word and thank you for giving these us these insights into the beginning of the age we're in right now, and just being able to witness through Scripture the beginning of the church and just the amazing day it was, and then the realization that God the Spirit lives in us because we are your children, we who are your children. And because of that, we get the privilege, if if we'll make ourselves available, the privilege of seeing you do amazing things through us based on the power of the Holy Spirit. And Lord, what a wonderful place to be. Thank you for just allowing us to examine through scriptures our history, and just to be reminded just through this moment where Peter, who up to this point was such a failure, made so many dumb decisions, said so many things that should not have come out of his mouth, allowed pride to blind him about his own weaknesses, all these things that we ourselves wrestle and struggle with. And yet here he is on this amazing first day, being used by you in a powerful way. And the message that sends to each one of us is that there are no rejects with those who come to the cross. And now, Lord, we're gonna end this time and we're gonna head out into that world around us that is very dark and in so need of seeing you in their life and responding to your love. And so I pray for us as your children that we we do a really good job of pointing people to our Savior. Help us take up that responsibility and be excited about being used in that way. Thanks, Lord, for this time we've had together. Pray these things in your son's name. Amen. How gracious is our God that at our lowest point like that he finds us.