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ACTS I & II | Week 5
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We are coming to the end of a series called Acts 1 and 2, in which we are walking through the first two chapters of the book of Acts together. Acts is a book of origin that preserves the history of the formation of the Christian church in its first thirty years. Our text today comes from Acts chapter 2, verses 22–36, which records the back half of the first Christian sermon ever preached in the history of mankind.
Peter, a former coward who ran at the cross, is now a bold apostle filled with the Spirit. He stands before a massive international crowd during the Jewish feast of Pentecost. The city of Jerusalem has swollen by thousands of people. He confronts the very men of Israel who, just fifty days before, were shouting, "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Peter begins his proclamation with a direct address: "Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth." He names Jesus by where He is from—Nazareth, a place so humble that people asked, "Could any good thing come out of Nazareth?" But God uses the foolish things of this world to confuse the minds of those who think they are wise.
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.
Peter reminds them of the life of Christ. They had all witnessed His miraculous power. They saw Him flex over nature, commanding storms to be quiet. They saw Him give sight to the blind, open the deaf ears of people, and cause the crippled to walk. They saw Him raise people from the dead.
He contrasts Christ with other religious leaders: Muhammad was a dope leader, but he never raised anybody from the dead. Joseph Smith started a movement, but he never raised anybody from the dead. Confucius was highly intelligent, but he did not raise anybody from the dead. Buddha has people worshiping him today, but he never raised anybody from the dead.
Jesus was no ordinary man. God was working through Him through those signs, wonders, and miracles to prove that "This is my Son. He is no ordinary man. No man can do the things that Jesus did apart from the power of the Holy Spirit."
Peter moves from preaching about the life of Christ to the death of Christ:
This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. You crucified him and killed him by the hands of lawless men.
He robs them of any satisfaction in thinking they got the victory over Christ. "You murdered the Son of God, but you murdered Him according to the foreknowledge and plan of God."
This raises a profound spiritual reality: the sovereignty of God juxtaposed with the will of mankind. How does God's sovereignty operate through the human will of man? When we think about this, we marvel at God. In our evil decisions and our good decisions, somehow God works through all of the decisions of human beings to still bring about His perfect will in the earth.
No decisions human beings make will hinder the plans of God from being unfolded. Consider Joseph in the Old Testament. His brothers, jealous of him, sold him into slavery. But Joseph said to them decades later:
You meant that for evil. Man's will. But God meant that for good. Sovereignty.
This is a reminder: no matter what evil has happened to you, Jesus could get the final word concerning you. You can look over your life and say, "You meant that for me for evil, man's will, but God is working it right now in my life for good."
Raped. Molested. Abandoned by a parent. Betrayed. Left. Deceived. Taken advantage of. But it made you wiser. It made you stronger. It made you more discerning. It shaped your character, built your faith, and taught you what friends not to have, what business partners not to have.
Even your own evil against yourself does not stop God's plan. When you remain inside His will—even when you make a mistake—not even your own mistakes will hinder His plan from unfolding in your life.
Just stay inside God's will. It don't matter what nobody say, what nobody do, how many videos they make, how much they talk about you, who walk out, who stay. Stay inside of God's will. Some of y'all, your enemies is your gift.
Your enemies think they are doing something to you, but they are just increasing your reward in heaven. Every opposition adds to your heavenly account.
Peter now moves to the resurrection:
But God raised him up from the dead, loosen the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Pangs is a Greek word that means birthing. Jesus' body laid in that tomb and birthed out of that tomb hope for eternity—hope for the life to come. Because Jesus called Himself "the way, the truth, the life," if Jesus is the Life, then no grave can hold Him. It was not possible for a grave to hold Him because He is the life.
The Scripture says He is the firstborn from the dead. And because of that, you and I will be the second born from the dead.
Many of us do not care about this because we do not read the scriptures. But the Scripture says: "Set your mind on things above." Set your mind like a thermostat. You have to program the thermostat. The more you set your mind on what is coming, the more you have strength for the trials in this life. The more you are not overly tethered to the things of this life, the more you can go through hell and keep bouncing back because you have a hope that goes beyond this life.
Heaven is not just floating around on clouds with harps. God is preparing a world with air, trees, water, food, laughter, and relationships—a life like this but without tears, without sickness in your body, without betrayals, without deceitful men, without crazy people. It is a life without the pain that you hate right now. Every time you shed a tear saying, "God, why is this happening?" remember that He went to prepare a place that will be like life without all of those tears.
Without the resurrection, Christianity does not exist. This is what anchors the church.
Right now, false narratives are circulating in Jerusalem. The Pharisees created a story that the disciples stole the body of Jesus. So Peter goes back to the word of God. That is what biblical preaching is supposed to do.
Peter quotes Psalm 16:
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 rejoice. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades. Nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption.
Peter is quoting from the psalms that the Jews had memorized. They knew the Torah. They knew the Psalms. He is preaching to them that the man you killed is the man you have been waiting for. The evidence is what David wrote.
Psalm 16 is not about David himself. Peter uses the law of double reference—the principle that the Spirit of God wrote through certain people in the first person the voice of somebody else coming in the future. The whole Old Testament reveals Christ. Jesus, when He was on the road to Emmaus, said to two disciples: beginning with the Old Testament, "He taught them about Himself." From Genesis to Malachi, it all reveals Christ.
David was not talking about himself. David was writing in the first person the voice of Christ coming a thousand years later in the future. Read it through the lens that this is Jesus talking through David:
I saw the Lord my Father always before me. For he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoice. My flesh will also dwell in hope.
How could a man facing death say, "My flesh will dwell in hope?" Because He had confidence that the Father will not leave His body in a grave. He trusted so much in God the Father that He willingly laid down His life, believing that if I lay down my life, the Father will raise me from the dead.
This tells us that you can have confidence in the word of God. Whatever the Scripture says about you, you can believe that it is true. When you open this book, you are reading the words of God, and whatever He says, you have to believe it.
I am having a medical condition in my body right now, but I believe that God is a healer because His word says so. This is me believing that He is a provider because He said so. Believing that He is a healer because He said so. Believing that He is with me because He said so. When you feel like, "God, where are you in this trial?" remember what He said in Psalm 23: "Though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you fear no evil." When you start seeing the scriptures like that—not just something to post, but something to tattoo to your heart—it changes the way that you live, think, walk, and feel.
The Lord was able to face death with hope because:
You will not abandon my soul to Hades. You will not allow my body to see corruption.
The Lord laid in a grave for three days—not long enough for His body to see corruption. Why? The Father honored His word. Jesus knew from the Old Testament scriptures that if He gave His life for the sins of man, the Lord would not leave Him in a grave. That is why on the cross He said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."
You have made known to me the paths of life. That is, I will be resurrected. You will make me full of gladness with your presence when I am seated at your right hand.
Peter then explains that David, who wrote this psalm, is dead and buried. His tomb is still there just south of Jerusalem. Muhammad is still in his tomb. Joseph Smith is still in his tomb. Confucius is still in his tomb. Buddha is still in his tomb. The progenitor of every religion is still in their tomb. But David is also in his tomb.
Since David is in his tomb, he could not have been writing about himself. The psalm is about resurrection.
David, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that He would set one of his own descendants on his throne—since Jesus came through the family lineage of David—foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades nor did His flesh see corruption.
Peter is robbing them of false theology. Good preachers destroy bad doctrine. If any of these Jews believed that David was writing about himself, Peter now uses the scriptures to show them that David is dead and in a tomb—he could not have been writing about himself. David, by the Spirit, was writing about the One that they killed.
Bad theology is dangerous. The study of God coming through the wrong mouth will make you believe things about God that are not true and will eclipse the glory of Christ. What Peter is doing is destroying bad doctrine and false theology with the word of God. You should be thankful whenever you are connected to biblical teaching that is sound and good theology, because it builds you up into the man and woman you are supposed to be.
Peter finishes his sermon:
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, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
Did you see what Peter just said? He said the Spirit of God was poured out from Christ. He is talking to Jews that believed He is still dead. But for something to be poured out, it must come from the top down. That means the Spirit on that day came from heaven down to the earth on those people. But the Spirit could only come, according to John, if Jesus was in heaven.
So if He was still in a tomb, the Spirit could not be poured out. Why? Because a dead man in a grave cannot pour out from heaven the Holy Spirit.
The best evidence for the resurrection is not only doctrine—it is you. Everybody under the sound of my voice who knows that you are saved—wave at me. Do you know the moment your life changed? Have you ever felt conviction? Have you ever felt the Spirit leading you? Have you ever felt the Spirit guiding you? Have you ever felt the Spirit talking to you—don't do this, don't go there? Have you ever felt the Spirit comforting you when you hurt?
Do you know for a fact the Spirit is in you? Do you know the moment when your eyes were open, you realized, "Oh snap, I'm in the Kingdom"?
The fact that the Spirit is in you is evidence that Christ is not in the grave. Your life is proof of the resurrection. For the Spirit cannot be in you if Christ was dead somewhere in a box.
When the next atheist runs up on you on a college campus saying, "There is no way a man could be raised from the dead," you say, "You are right. Not by his own power. But the fact that the Spirit is in me proves that He is alive."
I used to rob people at gunpoint, destroyed the lives of women, sold crack at the age of twelve, was reckless in the street. You think I am doing all of this right now out of goodwill? I am being led by someone on the inside of me. You are being led by someone on the inside of you. That person on the inside of you could not be there if Christ was in a box. For a dead man cannot pour out something that must come from heaven when He arrives.
The Father did not pour out the Spirit. He gave that authority to Christ. That means the Son must be there in order to pour out the Spirit. You are evidence of the resurrection.
You used to be ratchet, my ninja. You used to be crazy. What happened to you? I got filled with the Spirit that came from a Messiah who is alive. Alive. Alive. Yeah. Alive Jesus. That is why I am like this because somebody is on the inside of me who is alive.
Peter finishes his message with one final proclamation:
For David did not ascend into the heavens. But he himself says, "The Lord the Father said to my Lord Christ, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."
The Father said to the Son, "Stay right here until I send you back to deal with all of your enemies." He is talking about judgment coming for those on the wrong side of theology. We do not have time to play church when judgment is coming.
Let all of the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him Christ, both Lord, Master, and the anointed one, the Messiah. This Jesus whom you crucified.
The man they nailed to the cross has nailed their sin to their heart. That is the power of gospel proclamation.
After this, the scripture says, they were cut to the heart. They felt convicted. That is the power of biblical preaching. Where there is biblical, Holy Spirit–filled preaching, it will confront you in sin. It will rob you of false comfort. It will meet you where you are and not leave you where you are. It will lovingly tell you about yourself. It will exalt the person of Christ. It will execute the scriptures. It has the power to heal, to transform, to change, to reveal.
Is that the preaching we are hearing in America? Is that the preaching you hear on social media? Is that the preaching you hear at your church? Is that the preaching we hear in this hour? Is that the preaching we hear across the world?
This is not the preaching we need in this hour. We need the preaching of Peter—Spirit-filled gospel proclamation that cuts people to the heart. No more fluff. No more garbage. No more secular humanistic doctrine. No more lies from the pulpit. No more being afraid to tell people the truth for the sake of man-made approval. No more being addicted to people-pleasing.
Where there is love, there is confrontation.
This is what we need in America and around the world in this hour: the preaching of Peter. The life of Christ. The death of Christ. The resurrection of Christ. Biblical exegetical preaching that stands on the fidelity of the word—preaching that brings sinners into the kingdom and transforms saints into missionaries.
In the name of Yeshua, Hamashiach—Christ—I pray for an explosion in this hour of biblical proclamation across America and around the world. I pray God for the exaltation of Christ in America and around the world. I pray God for a gospel spreading across America and around the world that is biblical and powerful and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Preaching and teaching that heals, transforms, confronts, convicts, and brings the sinner—that snatches people from the fires of hell and transforms men, women, teenagers, and children into witnesses and missionaries.
No more time for nonsense in these final hours. Let revival break out off the backs of gospel preaching in cities and countries all around the world in these final hours of the church age.
