If you would remain standing and turn to God's word. We're going to be looking at Acts, chapter two, beginning in verse 14 to verse 41 this morning, Acts. Chapter Two, beginning in verse 14, reading the verse 41 before we read, let's go to the Lord again in prayer. Let's pray, Father, we come to you in prayer now because we know that unless you give us your spirit that open up our eyes to behold the glory and power of Jesus Christ, to give us understanding of your word, we are here in vain. We are wasting our time, Lord, we need you, and I pray Lord, that now you would unstop our deaf ears, that we would hear of Christ crucified for sinners like us, that you would soften our heart and hearts, that we might this day, receive Christ by faith.
Would be merciful to your people. We pray in Jesus' name, amen, people of God hear God's word for us this morning from the book of Acts beginning in chapter two, verse 14.
But Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed then Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day, but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel, and in the last days, it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on my male servants and female servants. In those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Before the day of the Lord comes that great and magnificent day, And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel hear these words, 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. God raised Him up loosening the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he's at my right hand that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption you have made known to me the paths of life you will, make me full of gladness with Your presence, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day, being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of His descendants on his throne. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ that he was not abandoned the Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.
This Jesus, God raised up and of that we are witnesses, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says the Lord, said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus, whom you crucified.
Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for your forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God, calls to himself and with many other words, he bore witness and continue to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized.
And they were added that day, about 3000 souls. He who has ears, let him hear the Word of God. Please be seated.
Well, it's that time of year that we are celebrating our graduates. We did a little get together last week, and we were celebrating some of our graduates. And after thinking about it a little bit further, I went ahead and I did something that I think the parents of these graduates will be very grateful for, really thankful for. I went ahead and I found the place online where I could print off college diplomas. So I'm going to save your graduates just a bunch of money by here we are right here. I have a certificate of for Andrew Bell and William. I see that you're here too. I can print one out for you and your days at Auburn be done. Save you lots of money and time. Caroline Wilson and even William Stayte diplomas for college right here. Isn't that wonderful? Saved you just bunch of time and lots of finances right there? That's kind of funny, a little bit silly, isn't it? Because I'm not accredited.
I'm not a university. I don't have that authority, if you will, to just hand out college, university diplomas like that.
Accreditation is important, isn't it? You want to go to a school that's accredited that you have a legitimate diploma in your hand, not just one that your pastor printed out on the internet right now. And it's even upsetting when you hear about companies just sending diplomas in the mail for a fee because they're not accredited, they're not legitimate.
And if I'm going to go in for surgery, I want someone who has proper credentials, not a self appointed or mailed in diploma doctor, right? You want to make sure that they know what they're doing and what's happening.
Actually, in our text, has to do with accreditation? How do we know Jesus is legit? How do we know Jesus is the legit lord and savior? Well, he's been accredited by God, and there is no higher authority than that.
But there's been a lot of people who have said they've come from God, even in Jesus's time, even before and after and even still today, people have said, I'm from God. And if I go to my doctor and I ask to see his credentials, and he says, Don't worry about it, I've been accredited by God. I'm a little skeptical.
What's the proof? How do I know people are worried here in this text, where's the evidence?
Peter, you are claiming that Jesus is Lord and Savior. Well, prove it. Where's the proof?
Where are the credentials here?
How do we know Jesus is the real thing? How do we know that Jesus is the Lord? How do we know that we can trust him.
Well, there's three things here.
I think that Peter lays out at least three things, but I'm going to focus on three things.
Is one, that this very Jesus was prophesied beforehand, hundreds, even 1000s of years. This very Jesus was spoken about second, this very Jesus performs miracles, which is the pinnacle of even his own resurrection, which is another sign of accreditation. Then the third is that Jesus is now reigning, and his reign is shown by the giving of His Spirit, which they are witnessing at that time.
Peter is the one who stands up to give this sermon. And you remember Peter? It wasn't long ago, in fact, just maybe about a week and a half ago, it was Peter who was afraid of a little girl who accused him of being one of the followers of Jesus.
Remember what he did? He denied it not only once, but three times, and he did it with much cursing. I don't know the man.
You remember that, and now this Peter steps forward boldly, even before a hostile crowd, and declares Jesus as his Lord and Savior.
What's happened to Peter, the Spirit of God.
Peter has repented. He has turned from his sin. He has put his faith in the Lord Jesus, Christ, and He is resting on Christ alone, Peter, who is now spirit filled, preaches this spirit filled sermon. And what is that spirit filled sermon look like?
Well, Peter directs people to the Word of God. He directs people to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he calls them to.
Repentance and faith, and that's what every sermon should have to the Word of God, to Christ and a call to repentance and faith. Now let's get into these accrediting points that Jesus was prophesied beforehand, when the disciples started to proclaim the gospel and other languages. There are people that said, if you look just at the previous verse, they said, Well, what's happening here?
What's going on here? There's some people that are believing, but some are even saying they're just filled with new wine.
They're a little bit tipsy drunk. And Peter answers them here in our text, he said, it's a little too early for that.
Maybe one or two of us, okay, but 120 of us, that's a little bit much this early in the morning for us all to be drunk.
We're not drunk at all.
He says, No, but this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel Peters been in the Scriptures again, which is great. Remember, he was in the Psalms, and now he's in the book of Joel, and Peter's looking in the scriptures to understand what's going on around him.
Peter's looking into the scriptures to understand what's happening around him. And he says, this is that, and I think that's an important phrase to tune up on, to pick up on here.
This is that what's happening right now? As Peter says in this Pentecost is something that Joel has already talked about. This is that, and we'll see Peter do that a few times in this sermon.
This is the continuing story of redemption that God had started all the way back in the book of Genesis all the way back in Eden, for Peter, the Old Testament, in many ways, has been unlocked for him. He he's read the Old Testament so many times. He he know the better. He probably knew the Old Testament much better than than we do. But now he's really starting to understand it, because now he's seen the Old Testament is really not about, ultimately, about Israel. It's really not about us. Who is the Old Testament?
Ultimately about, you know, this Jesus, that's right, and Peter's seeing this now, and he's getting it, and he's starting to get it, all excited about it, because he sees that the Psalms, it's about Jesus Joel, who was Joel talking about Jesus? And he said, Look what Joel said in chapter two. And the last days it shall be God declares, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Then he goes on. He says that this is that. This is what Joel was talking about. He says, we're in the last days now.
Peter tells us plainly, so you don't have to guess, are we in the last days? You don't have to keep looking at the newspaper, if you'll have newspapers or the news. Peter tells us we are in the last days. Those last days are now. The final act of God's redemptive plan has begun. The pouring out of the spirit has occurred. The flood gates of God's Spirit, they've opened up, and now the spirit is not just going into Jerusalem, but it's going to go into the entire world. This is what Joel prophesied. This is that Joel said. This is going to happen in the last days, which are now, God has poured out His Spirit on all types of people, not just upon prophets and priests and kings, but and not even just on Jews, but now going to the whole world. This is a day Moses longed for back in Numbers, chapter 11, if you remember, when the 70 elders are appointed, the Spirit of God falls on those 70 elders the care for God's people to help and assist Moses in his work. And then Moses says, would that all the Lord's people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit on them.
Moses is longing, if it not just me, but not only the elders, but what about all of God's people?
Wouldn't that be wonderful? He's talking to Joshua, by the way, Moses longed for that. And then Joel says it's going to happen.
And then Peter says it's happening. It's happened. The Spirit of God is now going forth to all people. This is what you have witnessed.
Joel's account also mentions that great and magnificent day of the Lord, that's the final day of judgment. And so what we find ourselves now, where we find ourselves is that between the day of Pentecost and the day of final judgment we are in the last days. That's what Peter's saying here. There's just one last thing left in redemptive history. The King of kings and the Lord of Lords will return to judge the living and the dead in this final day of judgment.
We need to seek salvation now, before it is too late. We don't know when it's.
Going to occur. We don't know when. We know we are in the last days now, but when will Christ return? We don't know. And Peter saying, you have to be ready now call upon the name of Lord now and be saved, not then now, be saved now.
But who are we to call upon? Who is the Lord to whom we are to call upon. And that's Peter's next point.
Verse, 22 men of Israel, hear these words, behave in listen up. This is what Peter's saying. He's talking to his audience and men of Israel, it would be just like me, saying, behave and listen, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by WITH by God, with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves, know, you See, the father didn't just simply give Jesus a diploma to just walk around and show people that he's been certified as the Lord and Christ, the Father has given His son, Jesus the spirit in abundance. Peter says, and that was shown to you with mighty works and wonders that he did in your midst. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, but that was confirmed to you by the signs and the wonders before you. And he didn't just do it in a corner. It was done between mighty many crowds, crowds of crowds, 1000s of people.
You know, he healed a man who was born blind. You saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead and many, many, many other miracles.
You experience this. You experience his authoritative teaching that was all confirmed by the miracles that He did.
That's why he did miracles.
Jesus didn't come to just set up hospitals. Jesus wasn't coming to just to be a humanitarian mission. All of his works were done to attest to his words that He is the Savior of mankind, that He's the Son of God. That's why he was crucified. If Jesus just stayed and He healed people, people would love Jesus, but he said, you must repent.
There's no way to the Father apart through me. And that is why men hate Jesus, because there is no other way of salvation apart through him.
You saw and you tasted the power and the goodness of Jesus, but Peter goes on, but yet you despised him. You rejected Him.
Verse 23 this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God you, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
The lawless men here, Peter's specifically talking about the Romans, the Gentiles without the law, lawless men with a Roman judge, Roman soldiers nailing him to the cross. But he also says not only the law to spend but you.
You crucified Jesus. You planned it. You You arranged this. You demanded it. Even when you were told that Jesus was innocent by Pilate, not only once, but multiple times, he was told there, this man's innocent. You know what you did, you shouted even louder, Crucify him.
Crucify him. Crucify him. You did this.
But who at the last say in Jesus' death?
It actually wasn't you, and it wasn't even the Romans. Look what Peter says. This was the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
God didn't just allow this. God didn't just anticipate it.
Listen to this, the wickedest, foulest day in world history that ever was or ever would be, God planned it God ordained to take his faultless and perfect son and give him into your hands and the hands of lawless men to be betrayed, tortured and crucified.
Why?
Why would Jesus, even then willingly do this and and even count it joy that was set before Him to endure the cross.
Couldn't God have spared Jesus?
Couldn't have God stop the cross from happening? Guess he could have.
Couldn't God have just destroyed all of his enemies?
Uh, yes, he could have and the Bible would be very, very short.
It would end in chapter three of Genesis. And that would be the end of mankind. That would be all of us, because we are all God's enemies. The wages of sin is death.
Something had to be done about our sin. And this is this our sad connection to Jesus, because this is what the plan was, and this is why Jesus came to take your sin as Romans 623 says the wages of sin is death. Your sin deserves wrath. Your sin deserves the judgment of God, and that's why Jesus came to die for your sins. In a very real sense, Jesus wasn't just killed by the men of Israel or even lawless men. It was you and me that killed him for our sin.
He was made sin who knew no sin for you and for me.
But Jesus is not only man, he is also God. He is the perfect, righteous one who fully satisfied God's justice for all of our sins, not in part, but the whole the atonement was complete, and he is the perfect, righteous one. And so what happens? Verse 24 God raised Him up loosening the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. It was not possible that death hold him.
There's a remarkable meta metaphor here, and it uses the pains, this language of pains, like labor pains. Here we go for Mother's Day. Okay, here's this is the picture mothers when that baby is ready to come out.
Can you keep it in when he's ready to or he or she is ready to come on out. If you say, hey, just gotta wait a minute there, buddy. You can't stop it. Baby's coming.
And that's the picture here.
It's almost like death is a pregnant woman, and death cannot keep Christ from bursting forth from the grave. That's the, that's the the wonderful metaphor here, you can't stop him. He's coming out, whether you like it or not, death can't hold him.
Jesus's miracles, his wonders and his signs, and even his death could lead to the conclusion that maybe he's just a powerful prophet like Moses or Elijah, but the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate accreditation, the ultimate proof and vindication that Jesus is Lord and Savior, that he is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, that He is your Savior and mine.
And here we see another. This is that. This is what David said about the Messiah in Psalm 16.
David. David prophesied this. He predicted this. He knew that the Messiah couldn't be held in the grave. Psalm 16, I saw the Lord always before me, for he sat at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoice. My flesh also will dwell in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption you have made known to me the paths of life you will make me full of gladness with Your presence, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David. This is Peter going on, that he was that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Psalm 16, written by David. But what Peter saying? We know it's not about David. His tomb is right here.
It's right here. In Jerusalem, the king's tomb is right here.
David is still dead. We can dig up his grave. We can look at his bones. David is dead. So who is David talking about here?
What are the Psalms about?
Jesus? Right?
David saw corruption David's den. But David, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn an oath to him that he would send one of set, one of his descendants, on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned the Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption this Jesus, God raised up and of that, we are all witnesses.
Peter's point is that only through the resurrection from the dead could a son of David rule forever and ever over God's people. It's not David who's resurrected, it is Jesus and Peter saying, we're witnesses of that we saw.
We saw Jesus with our own eyes.
Jesus made himself known to many people. We're witnesses of this resurrection. We see the empty tomb. We've seen the risen Lord.
What more proof do you need?
Well, Peter actually says, I have one more one more proof for you.
You've asked, What does this all mean? And here it is. Here's what this all means. Look at verse 33 being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Jesus is not only alive but reigning.
He's been exalted to the Father's right hand.
And what you saw and you heard at Pentecost was another sign of Jesus's exaltation, his power and authority over all things that Jesus is now acting with the father in heavenly rule to be the dispenser of the spirit, the outpouring of the Spirit is a fact that Jesus is alive, that he's at work and that he is reigning. And we have another Psalm, Psalm 110 The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies, my fool, my stool, my footstool, that Yahweh said that my Adonai, my Lord, said to my Lord, who is David's Lord, again, pointing to Christ. And then Peter says, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain, here's the accreditation, know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus, whom you crucified.
It's an objective reality.
Peter says Jesus is Lord. Jesus rules over all things. It doesn't matter what you think about Jesus. It doesn't matter how you voted about Jesus. Jesus rules over all things. This is what Psalm two says, that God has set him on his throne, and he will never, ever, ever be moved. You will not move him.
Whether you believe in Jesus or not, Jesus rules. Jesus is King.
He rules. It's objective reality.
What's also interesting here is that Israel, for 1000s of years, has repeated this phrase that you can find back in Deuteronomy chapter six, it says, Hear O Israel, the Lord God, the Lord is one.
You've heard that, right?
It's a very true statement that there is one God. But Peter is sharpening this statement now for us a little bit.
And here's essentially what Peter is declaring to the crowd.
He says, Hear O Israel, the Lord is Jesus, one God, three persons in the church will get to work this out over the next 100 of years, that there is one God and three persons, but Jesus is Lord, and it is the Spirit that enables us to call upon the name of the Lord that we are saved and we are reconciled to the Father. Well, sermons should never just be just interesting and fascinating theological facts. That's not a sermon, that's a lecture.
And so there's a call here. What should we do? This is what they say. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? They're pierced to the heart. They're broken hearted. They see their sin.
They see their guilt, but they see the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that their sins have been taken upon him who was crucified on their behalf. And so the gratitude now is, what do we do? And what does Peter tell them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children and all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself, repenting, turning from your sin, turning to Christ.
Being baptized the the sign that pictures being washed the the washing of sin, the baptized being baptized is a is a sign to faith. It calls on all those who have been baptized to put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it is sealed by faith.
God's promise of salvation isn't only for you, but for our children. Children here, we still, still part of the Covenant community. Jesus and the New Testament is better in every way.
You know. In Hebrews chapter 12, it talks about holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.
That is what the author of Hebrews is saying. You need holiness. You need righteousness, and if you don't have it, you won't go to heaven.
You will not see the face of God. But.
Us without holiness, without righteousness. And if you stand before God and you hold up your own accreditation of your righteous works, and it has your name and your holiness and your righteousness, God will tear it apart because it means nothing.
Your works mean nothing. Your only hope before God is to stand before him clothed in the righteousness of Christ alone.
This is what Peter is declaring to all of us this morning by the power of his Spirit, to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. There is no other hope.
There is no other life outside of Christ, call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for not making the Bible only three chapters, but planning to redeem a people to yourself and how beautifully and wonderfully, even over hundreds and 1000s of years, your plan has perfectly worked worked out and will continue to work out.
Jesus, who was prophesied, has come, shown his power, even in the resurrection, and has given us His Spirit. Lord, I do pray that you will open up our eyes to see and behold Christ by the power of your spirit this day, let us embrace Him by faith. Let us do what Peter calls us to do, to repent, to believe, be baptized, Lord. We thank you that Your promise is true, that every single word of your scriptures are true, and you say, Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Let us not take our lives for granted. Let us not be foolish.
We are vapers. We are myths. We are here for a little while.
Let us not boast of ourselves tomorrow, of tomorrow, for we don't know what tomorrow will bring forth. Today might be our last. Let us call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. And it's in Jesus's name we pray. Amen.