A People Prepared: The Giver of the Spirit

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0:00Welcome again to New Creation. I'm so glad to see you and glad to worship with you today to become before the Lord. We are six weeks now into our eight-week series on Acts 1 and 2. A people prepared. God is preparing His people in these two chapters. Here are the themes of Acts. Thanks to Avery for sitting over here in the corner. He's not in trouble. He's not in trouble. The trouble is with the cords, so that's why He's sitting over there. But a people prepared is our sermon series, and here's the themes of Acts for us today.

0:40The kingdom of God is the place that we live, the setting that we're in. If we're in Christ, we are in the kingdom. It's not merely for the future, it's for the right now. The promise of redemption is the story that we are in, the story that we're living in, the narrative for our lives. And then the reign of Christ is the ruler that we have. We are not on our own. We are not merely listening to each other. We are most of all listening to and following Him.

1:08He is not checked out. He is very much still our reigning King. So, chapter 2. At Pentecost, we looked at this a couple weeks ago, the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples. A new thing was beginning. They suddenly spoke in all of these foreign languages and dialects, and all of the people in Jerusalem who spoke those same languages and dialects started flocking to the house that they were at, wanting to know what was going on. The crowd gathers. They hear their manner of speech from these Galileans.

1:46It doesn't make any sense. What does this mean? They're amazed. They're perplexed. They don't know what's happening. What does this mean? Peter looks at the crowd, though. And when Peter looks at the crowd, he recognizes. He recognizes them. The people that he's speaking to, they saw Jesus. People that are now in this house that they're in, they saw Jesus and they rejected Jesus. He's looking at people who just 53 days earlier shouted, crucify Him.

2:30Give us Barabbas, but Him we want crucified. Peter's looking at them now. They're gathered. They're curious. They're skeptical. They're near to Him. They turned over and demanded that Jesus be crucified. Jesus, Peter's best friend, the one whom Peter loves, He's looking at them now. How is Peter going to respond to them? Last time our 517 youth group met, they talked about leadership and there's a whiteboard in one of our rooms of our house where one group wrote on their qualities we admire in a leader in a long list.

3:22It's a great list. I took a picture of it, actually. I really like it. A lot of the things on the list, I noticed, have to do with talking. It says things like, careful with words. But also it says, honest when saying hard things, delivering truth. I think Peter would approve of what the kids in that room wrote on that board. Because Peter doesn't avoid saying hard things here in this passage. He doesn't avoid confrontation with the people that he's looking at.

3:59What he knows that they were complicit in. But he also doesn't say, aha, now I gotcha. Let me just lay into you. Bring you as low as you possibly can in my humanness and subject you to humiliation. Because you were wrong and I was right. His emphasis is not on so much their wrongdoing and how wrong they were and how bad they should feel. His emphasis is on Jesus. The main thing that he talks about with them is Jesus. He doesn't avoid saying the hard things, but his focus, his emphasis is on Jesus.

4:44Because the person behind Pentecost is Jesus. He's the one behind it all. The Holy Spirit that has been poured out is now going to help Peter talk about Jesus to these people who had just 53 days earlier demanded that he die. So let's look at Acts 2 and see how Peter handles confrontation. A delicate moment. A moment where it could have gone a different way. If Peter's flesh had taken over, who knows what he might have said. But the Spirit took over and so he talked about Jesus.

5:31So let's look at it together. Starting in verse 22. This is the word of the Lord for us. Let's pay attention to it. Let's know that he has good things for us. That he longs to feed us, to nourish us, to strengthen us. This is the word of the Lord today. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs. 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.

6:16God raised him up, loosing the pangs 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 is 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.

6:53Brothers, I may say to you with confidence that 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 the Christ that he was not abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh seek corruption. This Jesus God raised up and of that we are all witnesses being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.

7:33He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not descend 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. Pray with me.

8:10Father, Son, Holy Spirit, would you please lead and guide us in your faithfulness and your wisdom and your steadfast love into deep truth, not just esoteric truths about the world, but Lord, we want truth about Jesus. We want to know more about who he is and how we can live differently because of who he is. Lord, make us your steadfast people. Help us to be faithful to you. Help us to worship you today, Lord. You can bring about hearts of worship in people who before just had hearts of stone.

8:52So Lord, please break up, sift through the stony places of our heart. Lead us into further worship, further rejoicing, further trust. Do good work in us. And I pray, Lord, that the evidence, the fruit of that would be clear to those who see us that following Jesus does make a difference in our life, does completely change who we are and where we're going. We pray this, Jesus, in your name.

9:27Two weeks ago was the power of the Spirit. Last week was the sign of the Spirit. This week is the giver of the Spirit. We're in the middle of the first of many speeches in the book of Acts. There's lots of evangelistic speeches, sermons. And here's Peter's sermon. If I were to put Peter's sermon, and by the way, this is like a summary of Peter's sermon, probably not all of the words he said summarized for us. If I were to summarize his sermon, it's basically, this event is telling you something about Jesus.

10:02You need to reconsider Jesus. Peter gives four aspects of Jesus here. They're connected, they're sequential, and each one builds on the last. They're going to be familiar to many of you. But perhaps one or more of these are things about Jesus that you've overlooked, that you have undervalued. We can never go wrong when we take a good, hard look at Jesus. Right? We can never go wrong. When our eyes return to Jesus and who he is, what he has done, we can never go wrong.

10:39When we submit ourselves to him, when we contemplate who he is, and then let our lives go in the direction that Jesus leads because of who he is. There's something that we can learn here from Peter about evangelism, about how to talk about Jesus and what truth to emphasize. I thought about making this sermon kind of a tutorial on speaking for Christ. But the Lord didn't actually lead me in that direction. I decided against that. I decided instead I want to put, I want you to put yourself in place of the crowd in this story who have something to learn about Jesus, who have something about the way you've been living that needs to be challenged and brought into line with who he is.

11:31What I want for all of us and me included is to see Jesus more fully. To be led into worship and obedience. Both of those things. Worship and obedience because of who he is. Because people always talk about what they love, don't they? So I'm convinced that the more you love Jesus, the more your life is submitted to him out of love for him and reverence for him, the more you will talk about Jesus to the people around you. Just like Peter did. So let's grow in our love of Christ today.

12:10Okay, there's four things. Here's the first one. Jesus was endorsed by God. Peter's audience, they know that Jesus did miracles. They saw them in person. Jesus healed the sick. He cast out demons. He multiplied food. He gave sight to the blind. He gave strength to the lame. No one in the crowd believed that it was smoke and mirrors, okay? They all believed that these were real miracles. But they didn't know what these miracles really meant. The big takeaway from these miracles is not that Jesus had power or that Jesus was kind and wanted to do nice things for people.

12:54He does have power. He is compassionate and he wants to do kind things for people. But that's not the main purpose of the miracles. The main purpose, Peter says, of these mighty works and wonders and signs was this was how God attested Jesus. Attested Jesus to the people. In other words, those miracles were like a letter of authenticity.

13:21Walking around with Jesus. If anyone was like, where did you come from? It's like, these signs tell you where I come from. Tell you who I came from. They show you that I'm the real deal. It's a letter of authenticity written by God to say, he is from me. This is my son. This is the Messiah. They're God's endorsement. Now this, this should make us pay attention because endorsements are everywhere. We live in a world full of endorsements. Every one of you listens to endorsements.

13:56No matter how independent of a thinker you think you are. Everyone listens to endorsements. Endorsements come on products and businesses, on books, on people. They make us take a second look. They make us change our minds. They sell things. Athletes and celebrities get paid big money. Far more than they make on the playing field for endorsements. For products that they didn't make, they probably don't use.

14:35There's a new ad. You're not used to seeing celebrities on pharmaceutical ads. But it's, now you're seeing it more and more. I saw one with Martha Stewart on it for like a GLP-1 pill or something. Look at the fine print. It's like, Martha Stewart does not use this product. You know that in some room somewhere she or her representatives are like, okay, she'll do this but you've got to tell everyone she is not using this product. That's an odd endorsement right there.

15:07Other ads feature experts. Four out of five dentists recommend Colgate whitening for your teeth. Right? When I hear of a new book that comes out on theology or the Christian life, the first thing I go to look at besides the table of contents is who endorsed that book. If I see a few names of people that I have read their material, I like their material, I think it's good and helpful and true, I immediately get a good impression about that book. Right?

15:37If someone that you know and trust recommends a book to you, especially if it's a topic that they have some expertise on, you're likely to pick it up and read it. Right? That's, this is the world we live in. Right?

15:53Jesus has God's endorsement. If he were a book, the first quote on the book jacket would be from God the Father. This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. And you, friends, you shouldn't, you shouldn't have to look any further for any further recommendations for Jesus. One out of one living gods of the universe recommends Jesus. Everything Jesus taught and said had the Father's blessing and approval. Everything. All of his commands, all of his wisdom, all of his promises, all of his mighty works were done so that he would, people would know that he's not some rogue actor, but a deliverer that was sent from above.

16:48I've come from him. He's backing up everything that I'm saying. There's not one word that comes out of Jesus' mouth that ever God was like, I don't know about that. God stands behind all of it. Like the blind man said, if this man were not from God, he could do nothing. Because he came from God, friends, we can trust his word and his way. We can trust his word and his way.

17:22Is God's endorsement enough for you to follow him even though you can't see him? To do what he commands even though it's costly to believe him more than you believe yourself, more than you believe your friends, more than you believe the expert, the influencer on your YouTube feed. Can you believe him more than anyone else and put his word above anyone else's? Because his word has God's approval.

17:52God didn't vouch for just what Jesus said, but also what he did. He was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. The crowd saw him on the cross and thought that it proved that he was a liar. Now we know for sure he was lying. Let God deliver him, they said. They mocked him. He said God was his father, let God deliver him.

18:22But even his death, especially his death, attested that he was from God, that he was God's Messiah. Isaiah had prophesied. Those people standing on the ground looking at him, mocking him, they forgot their Bible, they forgot their Scripture, their prophecy. Isaiah had said, we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. What he said and what he did has God's full endorsement.

18:59Here's a second one. Jesus was enlivened by God. You can tell I'm working on a little alliteration here. Peter said God raised him up. This is a crucial part of the apostolic witness. Sometimes we reduce evangelism, I have reduced evangelism to just saying God changed my life.

19:24That's a good thing to share with people. That it is. But that is not what Jesus meant fundamentally when he said you will be my witnesses to the apostles. Peter was changed by God but this sermon from Peter is not men of Israel. Jesus made me a new man.

19:44It's men of Israel. Jesus is alive. And of that we are all witnesses. The resurrection is not a metaphor. It was real. It was physical and it was promised. David goes into this quote now from Psalm 16. I'm sorry Peter goes into this quote from David from Psalm 16. David says God you will not let your holy ones see corruption. But David died and was buried. And Peter says you know David's tomb is right across town guys. You can go see it. we know David was not talking about himself because he died.

20:28He was corrupted. Peter is saying David is talking about someone else. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ. This is how Peter this is how Jesus taught Peter to interpret the Old Testament. You see the lessons the 40 day lesson that he got about how to read the Old Testament with Jesus at the center and now it's bearing fruit in Peter because he's taking this scripture and he's saying David was talking about Christ. The one who didn't see corruption.

21:01So God raised Jesus from the dead but again there's more here than meets the eye. This is not just about God's power to raise the dead. This is also about Jesus' full atonement for sin and his conquest over death because of that. Death is God's punishment for sin. Death was not part of God's original design. Jesus received that punishment for all in place of all who trust him but Jesus is not just any person. He's fully man and fully God. He alone was able to meet the perfect justice that a holy God required for sin.

21:48And he did it. he completely satisfied the wrath of God against sin for each and every one of his people. All of them. The countless thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions. He fully satisfied the wrath of God. And so Peter says this. This is really important. It was not possible for him to be held by death. It wasn't possible. There was nothing further to keep him there in the grave. Justice had been done. He had no sin of his own and the sin that he paid for was paid in full.

22:32Anyone here ever paid off your car or something? You get that letter in the mail? Paid in full. That car is not worth as much as it used to but it's paid in full.

22:46The debt that you had against God if you were in Christ it's been paid in full. And you know that because up he rose. There was nothing further to hold him in the grave. He had to come back. He had to be alive again. Because he lives we are assured of life. If you have put your faith in him his resurrection proves that you are fully forgiven. Past present and future. You're completely reconciled to God. There's no more wrath coming.

23:24There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He's not holding a grudge against you child of God. He never will. Oh how often we need to return to this.

23:43Because the lie comes so quickly doesn't it? That God is frustrated with us. That he's just about had it with us. That we've already used up all of his patience all of our second chances.

24:05It's not true. praise the Lord. It's not true. His mercies are new every morning because Jesus rose again from the dead. How I want every one of us to hold on to that truth all the time and not hide from the Lord. We can't not hide from other people because we think I just can't bring up my sin. I can't ask for forgiveness. It's been too many times. Surely God is done with me. It's not true.

25:05In Christ you are assured of life now. Peace with God. Peace that surpasses and transcends all understanding. Peace that is true regardless of your sin today, tomorrow, or the next day. There is always a well-worn path back to the Father to ask for forgiveness and receive it.

25:31And you're also assured of life in the future. Look again with me at the psalm that Peter quotes, Psalm 16. David is confident that he's going to receive life through the resurrection of this Holy One. The Holy One doesn't experience corruption. But David says, I am blessed because of that. And he is blessed in a distinctly physical way. Look at all of the physical things that David names. My heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced, my flesh will also dwell in hope.

26:06David is already looking forward to the eternal life to come. A life that is physical. This resurrection, friends, is a double assurance. It's assurance for our present and for our future. We can say confidently with David, my flesh also will dwell in hope. Even though right now that flesh may hurt, it may have a bum hip, or wounds that are still healing, it may have scars on it, there may be things that don't work right. maybe in this life that never will work right.

26:52But you know what? In Christ, your flesh will also dwell in hope, even in those things. Because this is assurance of not just life right now, but life to come in the future. Our flesh dwells in hope because our Redeemer lives.

27:11Here's the third one. Jesus is exalted by God. Of course, the vindicated and victorious king deserves his place. Peter says that David spoke about the resurrection of the Christ knowing that God had sworn with an oath that he would set one of his descendants on the throne. This is what David is thinking about. He's thinking about God promised me. He made a covenant with me. That there would always be a descendant of mine ruling and reigning. David knew the spirit told him that the holy one who is stronger than death would also be this promised eternal king.

27:52David has put these two promises together. And Peter agrees with him. And so Peter moves directly from the resurrection to the exaltation, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God. And then Peter quotes another psalm, another psalm of David, Psalm 110 to back this up. Peter may be thinking, oh yeah, I remember Jesus quoting this psalm. to the Pharisees, pointing out that David's heir was no ordinary human because David called him Lord.

28:27And indeed it wasn't David, it wasn't Solomon, it wasn't any other ordinary son who ascended. It was Jesus who ascended to take his seat at the right hand of the Father. Jesus' ascension is one of the least talked about aspects of Jesus. And it's kind of strange because this is the position that he occupies the most. He only spent 30 years in a humble state, but he's been exalted for nearly 2,000 years and will be eternally.

29:03Church, don't sell Jesus short. Do not diminish his place. He is not merely an expert that we call to when life just gets beyond our control. He's not a guru that we go to the mountain to for insight, for this one little puzzle that we just can't unlock. He's not a doctor that we go to when I just have to go to the doctor at this point. I've tried to mend this on my own and I finally, okay, fine, I'll go to the doctor. Jesus is not any of those things.

29:43He is the king. He is the king. He is ruling. I know you can't see him, but he is ruling over his kingdom and over his people. Everyone, every one of us who is in Christ, he's ruling over you. You have a king on the throne and because he reigns, we can live without fear. There is no power or force that is greater than him. Nothing material, nothing physical, nothing spiritual. If he is your refuge, no weapon formed against you will prosper. No institution or enemy that is intent on harming you will ever win.

30:34They might take all that you own, church, and you will still be rich. They might throw you in jail and you are still free. They might pierce you and take your life, but you will still live. Only because he is on the throne. Even now he is on the throne. The enemy Satan, he assaults our spirit. He tries to convince us all the time that there are powers that are about to get us. And most of all he tries to convince us that God doesn't love us, that God has abandoned us, that other things have taken his place, and that when the judgment comes we are going to be found guilty.

31:23But this too is a lie. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. Because he lives, and because he reigns, we have an intercessor. Always going before the throne, pleading the merits of his blood. For you and for me. We labor on in this life with suffering and sorrow. It's not always going to be this way. Someday his reign will be total and his enemies defeated.

32:01God has promised sit at my right hand until I make enemies of your footstool. Until I make your enemies your footstool. The last enemy to be destroyed is death and then that king, king Jesus will rule eternally.

32:19Here's the last one. He Jesus received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit. This gift wasn't for himself. He already knew and was well acquainted with the Holy Spirit who proceeded from the Father and the Son who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He was given the gift to the Spirit in turn to give it to you. To give it to me. And so he poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. This is the pinnacle of Peter's exhortation.

33:03The ultimate explanation of the meaning of Pentecost. The gift of the Holy Spirit shows that the risen Jesus has indeed taken his throne. Victorious and exalted.

33:18His resurrection inaugurated the age to come and his lavish pouring out of the Spirit proves it. The king that rules is the king that blesses. Think about worldly rulers and kings. They keep their people in the dark.

33:38Jesus gives the spirit to lead us into truth. Worldly kings keep their distance. You might see them on the balcony of the palace every now and then as they wave. Our king is always with us because his spirit lives in us. Worldly kings throw themselves lavish banquets while their people go hungry. Our king, King Jesus feeds us with himself.

34:10David says, you have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. If we're honest, this king treats us better than we treat ourselves.

34:24Because he gives the spirit we have real help. We have a king who empowers us, who nourishes us, and strengthens us. We need not and we should not rely on our own strength, our own wisdom for anything that we do. We have personal supernatural help, the person of the Holy Spirit.

34:46So Peter concludes all of this with a direct statement. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified. Pentecost has proven two things about Jesus. He's Lord. This is a title that Jews would use for God in place of the unspeakable name of Yahweh. Peter is saying Jesus is who he claimed to be. He is Lord. He is God. But also he is Christ. He is the promised Messiah, the deliverer, the suffering servant, the savior, the bringer salvation and all the promises of the age to come.

35:35How is this crowd going to respond to this? We're going to find out next week. But what about you right now? How will you respond? Let all of new creation therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus that I am speaking to Lord and your Christ what parts of your life are still remaining your own little kingdom that he needs to invade and conquer for your own good.

36:29May your life and my life and all of our lives reflect our