“Apostolic Sermons in Acts - Acts 2:25-36” by Dr. Bob Utley

this period to to show the things in life we sing about and that is that we don't live in fear that we live in hope we take the precautions necessary for health and safety but there's something different about us because we know who we are we know who our daddy is and we know who are going and that makes a difference amen the way we live the way we worship the way we interact so god bless you i'm doing a series of sermons on the apostolic sermons in acts and the point is i sent such a confusion today about the gospel here's so much strange stuff about who Jesus is on the media and it's really important that you and I are able to articulate the center pillars of the Christian faith now these apostolic sermons and Acts are basically the Apostle Peter in the Apostle Paul preaching to different groups of people to explain to them who Jesus was why he came what he did and that he's coming back now it's really important that we recognize number one that these sermons are summaries this is not a verbatim sermon I mean we can read these in a few minutes it took much longer to preach and proclaim but we believe by faith that the Holy Spirit led these authors to record for us the absolute crucial aspects of these inspired sermons and so when somebody asked us what do you believe I mean these are the kinds of truths we must bring up the main points of these sermons now on our mind again this first sermon Peter is speaking to a group of Jews now they are Jews from all over the world that came to Jerusalem for a feast day Jerusalem swelled to three times her normal size during these days there was a large crowd there we know that this started in the Upper Room probably John Mark's house that's where the wind and flames of tongues but very quickly though the Bible doesn't say it we're in the temple and Peter is preaching to a large group of people now how that transition occurs and everything that was said it's just not recorded for us now last week I dealt with a part of this first sermon and I want to remind you this is Peter and one of the aspects is he wants to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the promised Old Testament so now how do you do that to a group of Jews well you go back to the Old Testament it is not my accident that at least three passages are specifically referred to last week I dealt with Joel to this week I'm gonna deal with Psalm 16 and Psalm 110 Psalm 16 is only mentioned twice in the New Testament once it's in Paul's sermon and here in Peters sermon Psalm 110 is the most quoted some in all the New Testament so what Peter is saying is this isn't some new person this is somebody who's been revealed from the very beginning and is now manifest in your midst and he says to them looks them right in the eye and says do you know this because you heard him and you saw him the things he did the last week before he was killed I mean these peoples were there these are eyewitnesses Peter can't put anything over on them because they've been there and seen that and he's reminding them this is not just an offhand comment this is the one promise from the beginning and it's now coming now I'm gonna pick up at verse 24 but while you have your Bibles open I want you to look at verse 23 because another one these major pillars is this is not planned me this is not God offered the gospel to the Jews and they rejected so he went to the Gentiles it has always been God's plan that Jesus died for the world not for a select group or one nation Jesus is the savior of the world for God so loved the world there is no elite people now there is a people through them God revealed himself but they were never the goal they were always the channel and I think it's important that I'm screaming now the New Testament is not about Israel the New Testament is about Jesus about who he is why he came and whosoever will now so if you notice it's this plan this predetermined plan and look verse 24 the major pillar of this whole tent is that he was dead and now he's alive the resurrection is the key if Jesus's bones are in a Sepulchre in Israel we are the greatest fools the world has ever known the resurrection is the center pillar and that's what Psalm 16 is all about now I want this I don't get you to flip much in your Bible but I want to quickly go to 1st Corinthians 15 which is the resurrection chapter and just quickly outline for you there the implications if Jesus has not risen from the dead listen to this series I mean they're shocking in their end in their power 1st Corinthians 15 beginning in verse 13 but if there is no resurrection of the dead not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised our preaching is in vain your faith is in vain moreover we have found to be false witness of God because we witness concerning God that he raised Christ whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised for if the dead are not raised not even Christ has been raised and if Christ has not been raised your faith is worthless you are still in your sins then those of those also who have fallen asleep in Jesus our loved ones are gone if we have hoped in Christ in this life we are of all men to be most pity I mean this is not a doctrine we can fudge on boys alive or it's a lie now that's what these men said to these folks and he would look them in the eye and said you all know that now we know it doesn't say here they're 500 brothers came back to life from graveyards and went into the city when Jesus there was these 40 days of post-resurrection appearances where Jesus went to his family and to his apostles to on the road to Emmaus and all these folks Peter says check it out go talk to these people you know what I'm saying then in verse 25 he goes to this Psalm 16 it's a beautiful Psalm and like so many in the Psalms it has a little bit about David but a whole lot about David's ancestor now you know from second chronicles chapter 7 excuse me second samuel chapter 7 first chronicles chapter 17 Psalm 89 is this whole deal about that Jesus is a descendant of David and that God promised David there would always be a man on his throne now the Assyrian and Babylonian exile stop that and what we have here is the promise is going back in Genesis 2 he's gonna be at the tribe of Judah a promises to David that he's gonna be of the family of David and in just a minute I'm gonna get to Psalm 110 where it says he is a part of the high priest also after the order of Melchizedek so what we're doing is filling in information of how you can know that Jesus born in Bethlehem raised in Nazareth really is the son of God promised in the Old Testament that's the whole point of this I wanted to pick up briefly we're at mentions here in verse 25 I was always beholding the Lord now you see that's all caps in your Bible this is the word Yahweh this is the Covenant name for God from Genesis 2:4 the word the word in Genesis 1:1 is Elohim week that's the god of creation provision and sustaining but Yahweh is the god of saving covenant making God so it was Yahweh the Lord in my presence that's pretty shocking design the priest could be there for he is at my right hand that I may be it not be shaken of course this right hand deal is an imagery of what a place of power and authority and preeminence even in English we say that's my right hand man that's what Jesus has said to be God that's when Jesus ascends on the right hand of the Father I hope the goodness you're not so literal you think there's an old guy a young guy on a gold throne and a white bird flying around when you get to heaven that was a joke you big weenies you can get used to now I want to pick up where it says because that will not abandon my soul to Hades if you have Hades in your Bible I think King James has he'll this is this is the word Sheol if you go back to Psalm 16 and look there and read it there it's gonna say that to shield now shield is the Old Testament place where everybody went I mean the good the bad the ugly when you die you go to this holding place of the Dead for Old Testament Jews it was awaiting the day of the Messiah and a day of righteousness that would come now there's four places the Bible talks about that where the dead are originally everybody is in Sheol if you're using an English translation it probably has the word Hades which is simply a Greek word for the place of the unseen this would be where all the dead are there are two other to other places mentioned the New Testament one I'm is mentioned always by Jesus one time in James but mostly by Jesus and it's the word Gehenna you've probably heard that the word D is the Hebrew word for Valley and henna is a contraction of the valley of the sons of Hinnom which is a place right outside Jerusalem where the Jews worshipped the fire god Molech and offered their children to him later generations of Jews were so upset about that idolatry they turned the place into the garbage Jerusalem so when Jesus said the fire never goes out the worm never dies the stink always rising those are that's imagery from that garbage dump used to describe what we would call hail now this is separation from God after judgment there's one more place in the New Testament it says 2nd Peter is called to Taurus this is the place the Angels that kept not their proper state are kept so these are the four places the Bible talks about so what we're talking about basically here is that when Jesus died he went to the holding place of the dead and so I'd mentioned last week I think about 36 hours later he came out now we learned from first Peter three and four that he preached to the spirits in prison there we don't know who those prisons were we don't know if it was preaching of judgment or preaching of salvation but we know that he came out of the grave and he moved that rock to let us in to be sure that he came out so that we can have a hope that no matter what life offers us here there is coming a new day with him if we know him so this is Jesus breaking the chains and bonds of death as an example of the firstfruits of them who have fallen asleep in Jesus and that's us now it's also interesting to me if you look at this says you would not allow your your Holy One to see corruption now friends David and this is what Peters gonna say it's kind of hard for us to follow this because this is Rabbinical thinking and we're not used to it Peter looks them and says look this was written by David about David but there's David's tomb he's dead and his bones have corrupted in that tomb but the person about this Psalm he's not corrupted so this Psalm can referred to David completely this Psalm must refer to one of David's descendants and so we're talking about the Messiah the Septuagint the Greek translation done in the BC period makes this a messianic Psalm when Paul quotes this later in one of his sermons he makes it a messianic Psalm so Psalm 16 the refers to David a little bit primarily is about the coming Divini keen the coming Messiah so let's pick up if we could about verse 29 brethren I may confidently say to you regarding the our patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us today you catch the logic there and so because he was a prophet now most of us don't think of David as a prophet we think of David as a king or a song leader I want to remind you that for Jewish people if you wrote scripture you had to be a prophet that's why Moses in Deuteronomy 18 is called a prophet that's why the history books are called the farmer prophets and the latter prophets and so this David writing a song wisdom literature is an affirmation that David is a prophet not a Jew that would simply mean David is a scripture writer David is an inspired writer revealing who God is and that's what it's saying here because he really wasn't kind of Prophet that we talked about and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on the throne would you look in your reference Bible if you're serious about Bible study you have a reference Bible second samuel 7 first chronicles 17 Psalm 89 this is big stuff we know who the Messiah is line of Judah tribe of David these are things to confirm who he is it's not a haphazard kind of thing this is predictive prophecy peter is looking these Jews in the eyes who went to synagogue school who knew their Old Testament and said this is the one how do I know check this and check this and check this and check I bet you this is exactly what Jesus did to the two on the road to Emmaus and when those two on the road to Emmaus came back to the Apostolic in the upper room those two told them where Jesus showed himself to them from the Old Testament and now Peters preaching it a matter of fact just thanking me for a minute Peter and the Apostles are hiding in the upper room with the door locked because they're afraid of the Jews fifty days later they're in the temple in the streets preaching Jesus has come out of the grave something happened to those boys they were scared to death and now they're bold as they can be because they saw him him that wonderful song I've seen him it'll never be the same again amen I mean when the resurrection guy walks in the room and says feel these marks something happens and that resurrected man is here today and that's these change lives we talk about it's not just something that happened in the past something happened in the past and it's happening today and that's why we're here verse 31 and he looked ahead and spoke the resurrection of Christ that he was neither abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh suffer corruption but Jesus this Jesus God raised up again now I don't know if you thought about it if I ask you the question from the Bible who raised Jesus now most of us from our Baptist traditions would say the Holy Spirit and we get that from Romans 8:11 and the spirit that raised him from the dead will raise your mortal bodies also Romans 8:11 but I want you to know that in in John 10 three times Jesus says I lay down my life and I pick it up again so Jesus was involved in his own resurrection most of the times in the Bible particularly in the sermons and acts it is God the Father that raises the Sun as it is here and this why this was God the Father saying I accept what he said I accept who he is I accept what he what he's done for us this is an affirmation of that Jesus was pleasing to the Father and was raised from the dead for that reason and of course for us the firstfruits this Jesus God's right up again which you were all witnesses there for having me exalted to the right hand of God now again this is a place of preeminence for authority and power I used to think that when Jesus died and ascended into heaven that that his work was finished that now this is the age of the spirit that most of the things all the things done in this world now are done by the Holy Spirit but I want to remind you there are several places in the Bible um the ones that come to my mind are Hebrews 7 and Hebrews 9 where Jesus at the right hand of the Father intercedes for us now that I know them they belong to me I died for them I love them can you believe that the father sent the son to die for us send the spirit to inform us about that and that still Jesus the resurrected Lord intercedes for us hallelujah man we're a special people man we're a blessed people God loves us died for us and is praying for us what a family tree we have I'm over it therefore God has raised him up exalted him to the right hand that's Acts chapter one that's the Ascension and having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit and I don't know if you recognize this I don't there's some confusion here remember Jesus when he walked in the upper room when the disciples were there and he breathed on them sacks it's John 20 and said received the spirit and how did they receive the spirit earlier when they were saved because you can't be saved without the spirit right or did you receive the spirit in the upper room after his death or did they receive the spirit at the the station of the signs of Pentecostal power in the upper room the flames of tongues of fire in the wind the spirit has always been in the world but there are some markers about a new relationship this is the beginning of the new age of the Spirit everything's new since the coming of the Messiah I want I want to really make this point but I hope you hear me we're talking too much about the second coming I should have got your attention with that because I want to tell you the big deal is not the second coming the big deal is the first coming 95% of the Old Testament prophecies are about the first coming the first coming is where salvation comes the first coming is fro fulfillment the second coming is nothing but the cleaning up the mess that's left over I am Who I am because of the first coming I'm saved because of the first coming yes there's gonna be a second coming yes there's going to be a consummation but we walk in victory now hallelujah the big event has happened and whosoever will may participate in it God raised him from the dead promise holy spirit has come now look at verse 34 it has always been surprising this is Psalm 110 the most quoted some I think in the whole New Testament I mean it's the most quoted scripture of the New Testament not just the most quoted asam this is the fake you know this for sure the Lord said to my lord now you know there are two different words for Lord there in the Hebrew if you have your Bibles and you turn one of them are all caps and one of them just as a capital L well the capital L is the Hebrew word adone and this simply means master owner Lord it's a word used for the faux Jesus in the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ but all caps that that covenant name for God that I showed you earlier Yahweh from the Hebrew verb to be this is the covenant name for God so the Lord said to my lord and sit down at my right hand now there is this same kind of power and preeminence of Acts chapter 1 but if you look at the next verse down for you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek did you know the early Jews thought there were going to be two messiahs because of this verse one from the tribe of Judah one from the tribe of Levi now wait a minute how can Jesus the Messiah be a royal the descendant of David and a descendant of Aaron now see that would confuse Jews and it confuses us so the authors come back particularly the author of Hebrews and says he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek do you know who Melchizedek is reference Bible Genesis 14 this is the priest and king of Salem which later became jealous which later became Salem which later became Jerusalem this is a Canaanite priest king to whom Abraham bowed down and offered a tithe to holy spit when Abraham bowels down to somebody that's a big dude amen paid a time the father of faith paid a tithe to a Canaanite priest King yes he did now that that shows the significance of this priest King and what we're saying here is Jesus is not from the line of Levi but Jesus is both Davidic and and priestly now do you know in your Bibles were another pair of the vinick payer and priests or put together zechariah zerubabbel the line of david joshua the line of the high priests and their two olive trees that drip olive oil into the one 7-point lampstand the menorah i mean this is this is rather shocking so this is Jesus now Hebrews the only book in the Bible would call him the high priest from these texts so him boy he intercedes for us he laid down his life he is both the sacrifice and the sacrifice ur man what this is some Messiah now let me go a little further if I wouldn't lost my place got so excited verse 36 therefore let all the house of Israel he's been talking to them these Jews I'm all over the known world in know for certain that God has made him Jesus both Lord and Christ now this word Lord here when I see this my mind goes to Philippians to that wonderful christological text there about he's really one of us and he's really the son of God and that's this famous text you've given him a name that's above every name that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow what is that name it's above every name I don't think it's Jesus it's Lord it's Lord and of course Lord is a way of affirming the deity of the Messiah as Jesus is away by itself a name of referring to the humanity of the Messiah and of course the word Christ is nothing more than the Hebrew word for the Anointed One the special promise coming one the specially equipped one so what we have here is the affirmation of both the humanity and deity as well as the royalness and priests leanness of this one this peasant carpenter from Nazareth don't judge a book by it's cover amen you open this book and you got deity humanity and royalness and priesthood and the pages of this book this is somebody who came and died for us this is somebody who laid down his life for you and this one couldn't be held by the grave and because we know him and trust him the great can't hold us either God had made him both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified now these folks didn't crucify Jesus the high priest plotted it Judas betrayed him the Romans killed him and these Jews who are the burliest Jews who came from all over the world for a feast day because Moses told them to who were at the temple and heard these these wild people preach about somebody and Peter looked him in the eyes said you did it now they weren't there at pilots seat early in the morning they weren't there at the night trials of the high priests but because they are part of a fallen Kadri of human beings the children of Adam they're responsible for the crucifixion of Christ because there's our sins that put him on that tree it is it is our fallenness that caused him to have to come and die and no matter who we are and what we've done I liked your song brother I don't see him not know he's here somewhere where's that brother who sang this the special he left the building you tell him I calls on his name would you that song about God knows who you are God knows what you've done and he still died in your place would you bow your head to me I don't know you I don't know what you've done most of us pretty played the fool as young people most of us made some terrible choices in our life most of us bear the scars from what we've been and done but I want you to know this this Lord and Christ this King priest loves you enough to come and die became the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and now as a proclaimer of the gospel i can say that whosoever will as many as receive him as many as believe in him whosoever calls upon his name can have the full and complete salvation that he is brought and the whole world only needs to believe to be saved so i offer it to you not on my name but in his name and from his book this is the day the Lord has made and if you don't know him it's the day for you to know him and if you know him it's Dave you to forgive yourself and begin to walk with him and serve Him we're here to praise Him we're here to love him we're here to thank him and we're here to know him amen Shalom have a good week

Channel: Free Bible Commentary

Views: 614

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Keywords: bible, bible study, bible commentary, hermeneutics, historical-grammatical, new testament, old testament, bob utley

Id: sMI5hp9pNcY

Length: 27min 45sec (1665 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2020