Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision
The Church: It's All About Jesus Part 1 08/03/08
Sermon Series: Acts: Enlarging Our Vision
Message: ‘The Church: It’s all about Jesus’
Text: Acts 2:14-40
Introduction: If you’ve ever had to speak in front of a group, you know how nervous that can make you... especially that first time.
· Your palms sweat,
· you fiddle with things in your pocket,
· you stumble over words
· and your nervousness gets in the way of what you want to say.
This morning we are going to get a chance to hear a pastor’s first sermon. But it’s going to be a lot different than most first sermons by new pastors.
· We won’t read about any stuttering, nervousness or sweaty palms.
· We will read about power and poise, as the Gospel of Jesus Christ is delivered effectively to a large crowd gathered by God for the sole purpose of hearing his message of hope.
· And that new preacher is the apostle Peter.
Background
There are a few things I want you to notice as we examine Peter’s first sermon.
· The disciples had been praying in the Upper Room. When the Holy Spirit came and filled them, Peter preached a powerful message.
I hope you pray for me during the week and even on Sunday mornings. I need your prayers to keep me focused, to keep me true, so that I might be filled with the Holy Spirit to bring you a message from God’s Word that will draw you one step closer to Jesus in your journey of faith.
· Notice that it was Peter who gave the first sermon to the new born church. Peter…did you hear that?
It was Peter, not level headed John, but impulsive Peter. It was John who stood at the foot of Jesus’ cross when he was crucified while Peter denied knowing Jesus and was in hiding.
Peter messed up, big time. And God still used him in a great way. Isn’t that encouraging to those of us who have messed up, who have fallen, who have acted at times like we don’t know Jesus at all?
God gives us 2nd chances…and 3rd, 4th, 5th…chances too…in fact, He never gives up on us. He’s patient and willing to use us even when we fell we are unworthy.
· Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit as we read about in the beginning of chapter 2. It was in the power of the Spirit and not in the confidence of his abilities that Peter spoke that eventful day.
Someone once said ‘God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.’ That means when God calls you to do something for him, he will provide you with all you need to do it…Think about Peter.
· Peter used a lot of Scripture in his message. About 200 of the almost 500 words Peter used in this first sermon are direct quotes from Scripture.
In many churches today, corporate worship services and pastor’s messages are lightly ‘sprinkled’ with Scripture, God’s Word. They don’t want too much so as to offend the visitors, and not too little so as to worry the faithful.
That’s why I bath our corporate worship service and sermon in God’s Word. Because God’s Word says ‘faith comes form hearing and hearing from the Word of God.’
If we are going to experience transformed lives, it will only happen through God’s Word as his Holy Spirit opens our minds and heart to receive it.
· Peter’s sermon was personal. It wasn’t academic, heady or over intellectual…it was personal. As we go through the text take notice to the number of times Peter uses the word ‘you.’
· Peter’s sermon was clear. He said ‘let me explain to you, listen carefully to what I say.’ He didn’t want the people in the crowd to miss anything. He didn’t pull any punches and spoke clearly sin, repentance and faith in Jesus.
· Peter’s sermon was persuasive. Peter wasn’t interested in giving a lot of information for the people to think about. He wanted to see lives transformed when they took the words he said and cried out to God in response.
And that’s my prayer as well. I don’t just want to give you information about God’s Word. I want to see your life transformed by what you hear in the message and experience in our worship service. But for that to happen, you first have to acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit and then cry out to God to touch your life…I promise he will.
Transition: So, open your Bibles to Acts 2:14 (pg. 831 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you.) For it’s there we’ll see that the church is all about Jesus.
I. Acts 2:14-21 Peter explains the Pentecost event
Read: Acts 2:14-15
A. Practical Explanation
The first thing Peter does is flatly deny the charge that he and the other disciples were drunk. He said that it was too early in the morning to be drinking.
Historians tell us that Jews, religious or not, wouldn’t eat or drink anything until 9am on the Sabbath or on a feast day. And this was a feast day.
Peter then goes from telling the people what the Pentecost event is not, to what it is by giving them a biblical explanation. To do this he quotes a passage from the Prophet Joel.
B. Biblical Explanation
Read: Acts 2:16-18
The good news
The Prophet Joel told of a time when the Spirit of God would be poured out on all humanity. And the emphasis here is on the ‘all.’ Peter was claiming that this was it, this was the time…and it was evidenced by the presence of representatives from 15 people groups.
The gift of God, the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, was available to all who repented and turned to faith in Jesus Christ, as Peter will soon tell them and that was good news.
But Joel’s prophesy was not just good news.
The bad news
Read: Acts 2:19-20
The coming of the Spirit was a sign of the ‘day of the Lord.’
· The ‘day of the Lord’ was not only the time the kingdom of God would be established on earth and God’s blessings would flow to those who walk in faith
· But, the ‘day of the Lord’ was the time of God’s judgment on those who reject him.
Good news, bad news and then even better news.
The even better news
Read: Acts 2:21
Here’s the even better news. This outpouring of the Holy Spirit means that God is offering salvation to everyone. ‘Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’ Salvation is not just for the Jews alone, it’s for all humanity. That was a radical idea in Peter’s day.
Transition: I can just imagine the people in the crowd saying ‘Peter, tell us more.’ And he did.
II. Acts 2:22-24 The introduction to Peter’s sermon
Read: Acts 2:22-24
Peter just said that God’s judgment found in Joel’s prophesy was being fulfilled in the Pentecost event. Now Peter, in the introduction of his sermon, tells the people in the crowd that they were facing God’s judgment for killing Jesus the Messiah and God’s Son. How’s that forgetting their attention?
Jesus presented himself to the people in Jerusalem in fulfillment of Scripture. He claimed to be the Messiah, God’s Son and God himself testified to his identity and authority through the signs and wonders Jesus performed.
In spite of this, the people rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Not only did they reject him, they turned him over to the Romans to have him nailed to a wooden cross and killed. Yet, God’s purpose was not thwarted…God raised Jesus from the dead.
Notice that Peter had no problem telling the people… you killed Jesus, God’s Son.’ If Peter was available for pulpit supply today he wouldn’t get many return calls to preach because too many churches don’t want to ‘offend’ anyone with the hard sayings in God’s Word.
Wow, this sermon keeps getting better and better.
But, I want to take a few moments and ask the question ‘How could Peter say ‘You…put him (Jesus) to death?’’ After all, it is quite possible and highly probable that most of the people there that day were not in the crowd that shouted ‘Crucify him! Crucify Him!’ when Jesus was before Pilate.
Peter can say this because the people in the crowd were involved in the crime that brought Jesus to the cross.
· They weren’t being judged by God for ending Jesus’ physical life.
· They were facing God’s judgment because they rejected Jesus’ claim to be God’s Son, their Messiah.
Track with me on this. Jesus was crucified on the grounds of blasphemy and this was the religious leaders evidence for the charge.
· Jesus claimed to be the Son of God.
· Jesus claimed God affirmed his claim to be the Messiah.
· Jesus told the Jewish people… ‘I and the Father are one.’
It was the religious leaders charge of blasphemey, and the crowds agreement, that sent Jesus to the cross. So, anyone who does not believes that Jesus is God’s Son and refuses to accept him as their Messiah, would be in agreement with those who called him a blasphemer. In a very real way, it’s as if they too are saying ‘Crucify Him! Crucify Him!’ as Jesus stood before Pilate.
While perhaps most of the people in the crowd were not present at Jesus crucifixion and death, by their rejection of Jesus as their Savior, they too faced judgment by God.
Conclusion
The same is true today.
· Do you join God in affirming Jesus as the Messiah, and call him Savior and Lord?
· Or do you join the crowd who rejected Jesus’ claim to be God’s Son and your Savior?
Peter declared ‘you…put him to death by nailing him to the cross.’
The cross is central to Peter’s sermon and it is at the heart of the Christian message. It is the identifying mark of the Church and it is the guarantee of a new life…the cross…death…new life? Yes!
Peter also said ‘you…put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.’
For Peter the cross is many things.
The cross is a symbol of our sin.
· It reminds us that sin is something that God can not tolerate.
· We can’t get right with God by simply turning over a new leaf, trying better and going to church.
· Getting right with God means dealing with our sin problem and that can only be done with the shedding of blood.
Read: Hebrews 9:22b: ‘without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.’
The cross is proof of God’s love
Read: Romans 5:8 ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’
· The blood of Jesus, shed on the cross, paid the penalty of our sin and was a demonstration of the depth of God’s love for us.
Finally for Peter the cross is an invitation to life.
· Until we come to the cross, we will never come to Christ.
· Until we acknowledge our sin and repent, we will never receive God’s forgiveness.
I want you to go back in your Bibles, and if you are using your own Bible and not the church bible, underline the word ‘everyone’ or ‘whoever’ depending on your translation, in Acts 2:21.
This means that salvation is for everyone.
· Your neighbor who doesn’t want anything to do with church or religion.
· Your co-worker who makes fun of you for reading your Bible on your break.
· You fellow students who make strange faces when they see you pray for your lunch.
· Your spouse who sees your sin and says ‘What kind of a Christian are you?’
‘Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’ Even you! Even now!
Coming to church is not about friendship, service, doctrine or singing. (Although they are all great and wonderful things) Peter’s sermon reminds us that the church is all about Jesus Christ.