Welcome to Expound, a
verse-by-verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Father, we come before
you as living sacrifices, and we present
our bodies to you. And we know that's our
spiritual act of worship, that's our reasonable service. That is the smartest
thing we could do in light of and in view
of all the many mercies and blessings you
have given to us. So we say to you,
here's our attention, our ears, here's our mind
to process these thoughts. Here are our very
lives that we might be conformed to the image of
Christ one step at a time. But one sure step at a time
as we consider and apply your scripture, your word,
in Jesus' name, Amen. So I have to think that a
delivery room in the hospital is one of the most
exciting places to be. Usually it is. I mean, people come
there to have babies. They've long
anticipated the event. I remember when my son was
born how excited I was, and I did take
advantage of the fact that my wife was
just so exhausted from the ordeal of a
long labor in her case that when my son
was born, though we had talked about different
names, she wasn't sure. She hadn't landed on one. I was pretty sure I wanted
Nathan and she didn't really know. And then, so after he was born
and her sister called and they were on the phone, she just
in an absolute exhaustion turned to me and
she said, my sister wants to know what the name
is, so what's the name? And I said Nathan. She goes I guess it's Nathan so
it became his name I just kind of honed right in on that,
because I loved that name. He's a good guy in the
Bible, and so his name has been that ever
since as you know. And then, the sheer, pure joy
to see those grandkids born. Did I tell you that I
have two grand kids who are just perfect? Kids usually aren't. I mean, all people are
flawed, except there are two on the earth that are
different from all others. So a delivery room
is so wonderful. I want to take you back 2,000
years to a delivery room, so to speak, when
the church is born. It's the birthday of
the church, the day of Pentecost just over 2,000
years ago in Jerusalem. Now you may have heard
of those three guys that were in the delivery room. All their wives were
going to have babies, and they were waiting. They're waiting for
the news, so a nurse comes out and says to
one, congratulations, you're the father of twins. And he jumped up out of
his seat and said twins? That's fabulous. And it's coincidental,
because I happen to play ball for the Minnesota Twins. And so he was just kind
of gawking over that. And about a half an hour
later, she, the nurse, came out again and said to
another man, congratulations, your wife had three babies. You are the father of
triplets, and he stood up and he's a little
bit overwhelmed by the thought of
having a three, but he said I'm so grateful
and they're all healthy, great. And oddly, I happen to be an
executive for the 3M company. At that point, the third guy in
the room fell out of his chair onto the floor
panting, losing air. And the nurse said, are you OK? What's wrong? And he said, well, I happen
to work for the 7-Up Company. He wasn't all that excited,
so far, at the prospect. Well, on the birthday of the
church, not two, not three, but 3,000 spiritual babies
are going to be born. We want to get to that so
we should kind of jump in, and we're in Acts Chapter 2. Oh, I forgot, you know,
let's go back to Verse 24, because I left you hanging
last week, didn't I? I left you hanging because
in Verse 24 they prayed, because they have to replace
an apostle Judas hung himself. And the rope broke and
his bowels, his guts splattered all over the rocks. That's what they
said in the book. It's in the Bible, so I'm just
telling you what happened. So now they have to replace
the apostle, so Verse 24, they prayed. And they said now listen to
how beautiful is this prayer. You, O Lord, who know the hearts
of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in
this ministry and apostleship from which Judas
by transgression fell that he might
go to his own place. And they cast their lots and
the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered
with the 11 apostles. The question comes, it
has been proposed by some that perhaps they made
a couple mistakes here. This is what some have thought. Did they make a mistake in
limiting God first of all? And some will say, yes, that is
the problem, because they said, not which person on
earth do you want Lord? They said which of these two? So they only gave
God two choices, and the reasoning of those
who think this is wrong is that they say, well,
the obvious choice was Paul the Apostle. So they limited God. If they just would
have waited, God was going to replace
the apostleship with Paul the Apostle. And I will grant you Paul
is called an apostle. The other mistake that
people say that was made is that they cast lots. OK, we want to find
out God's will. Who has the dice? Let's throw dice. Oh, snake eyes, OK, so that
means so-and-so gets in. So it seems odd to some people
that you have New Testament believers throwing dice,
casting lots, to find out the will of God. Now that shouldn't be
too strange to you. If you know your Bibles, you
know that in the Old Testament there was a method that the
priest would use when somebody wanted to discern God's will. There were two stones. One was called the
Urim and the other was called the Thummim,
the Urim and the Thummim. We don't exactly
know what they were, but they were some kind of a way
to look at a stone, two stones, black and white it is
believed and discern what the will of God
is by casting lots. And if you think, well, I still
think that's a horrible way to discern God's will. How about this? In Proverbs 16 it says the
lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision
is from the Lord. As if to say, even with
the Urim and the Thummim, this archaic way of
discerning God's will, God sovereignly
is superintending the outcome of what is cast. Now having said
that, I immediately have to say you'll be
relieved to know that this is the last time casting lots
is ever mentioned or practiced in the scriptures. You'll never read of it again. Last time. The early church will not do
that after the Holy Spirit comes upon them. There is no need. The Holy Spirit
as Jesus promised will guide you into
all truth all truth, so He's going to direct them. So were they making a mistake? I guess that's up
to you to decide, but there's a bigger question. What about apostles? They feel the need
to replace an apostle with somebody who's going to
be called one of the Twelve Apostles. So are there still
apostles today or have they vanished
off the scene? And that is a question I've
been asked on many occasions. Are there apostles today? Here's how I answer it, and
you're not going to like it. Yes and no. See I told you you
wouldn't like it. It's like that's
so unsatisfying. Yes and no. Who answers a
question like that? Skip Heitzig does
and here's why. In the strictest sense there
are no more apostles today. But in a functional
sense there are. You say that didn't help. OK, so let me explain myself. In the strictest
possible sense, there were only Twelve Apostles who
number one saw the resurrected Christ, were with Him
during His earthly ministry. And that was the
criteria involved here. You have to have been, from
the beginning, with Jesus and you saw him
after He resurrected. Well, nobody can
claim that today. Nobody today alive
was with Jesus during His earthly ministry. So in a strict sense,
there are no more apostles. The apostles, that is the
12, laid the foundation of the Church. Paul said that the
Church was laid by the foundation of the
prophets and the apostles. And in this chapter in Verse
42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine. That is, these 12 gave
teaching, doctrine, that became foundational
for the church from this day, its
birthday, forward. So that's foundational. Also, there seems
to have been signs that accompanied the strict
role of the apostle of the 12. Jesus promised them
you're going to go and these signs will accompany. And Paul, when he
writes the Corinthians in second Corinthians
says, though he never numbered himself with the 12. He said, I am not behind even
the most eminent apostles. In fact, the signs of an
apostle were wrought through me in your presence. So he is saying,
I performed signs that were known as
signs of an apostle. And Paul is called an
apostle to the Gentiles, but Paul the Apostle
wasn't following Jesus from the beginning
of His ministry. And that was one
of the criteria, and he didn't see the
resurrected Christ. But he eventually did
after the ascension. There was a time when
he's on the road to Emmaus Jesus appeared to him. So I guess you could see
he saw an after-view of it, But not in the sense
that these 12 did. So no, there are
no more apostles in the strictest sense. However, in the broader
sense there are. In the functional sense there
are, and here's what I mean. 75 times in the
New Testament you will find the word "apostle." many of those times-- many of those times
they do not refer to the Twelve Apostles that were
with Jesus from the beginning. For example, Barnabas
is called an apostle. Paul called an apostle. Timothy was called an apostle. Silvanus was called an apostle. Andronicus and
Junia-- you go who? They were apostles, that's who. All of these in the New
Testament were called apostles. Why? Because they had some
apostolic function. They had a function. You see, the word apostle,
apostelo or apostolos if you're talking noun or verb, means a
sent out one or a messenger-- a messenger. The original
classical Greek word referred to an
expedition or a fleet of ships that were sent out. By the time we get to the death
of all of the Twelve Apostles, after they were gone, a book
emerged called the Didache or some just call
it the "Did-a-key," because that's how
we anglicize it. The Didache was a
manual for the churches on how to spot a false
prophet or a false apostle. So they designated
people as true apostles and false apostles after
the death of the apostles. So it was still used,
not in the strict sense, but in a functional sense. Does that make sense? Now in eastern
churches to this day they will refer to
missionaries as apostles. They're sent out. They're church
planters or they're plowing new ground culturally. And in that case, they
function as apostles so you can take that
as far as you want to. I thought you'd be
interested to know and I hope that answered the
question that I left hanging. It's funny because
I said my wife hates the words at the end of a
movie "to be continued," and I left you with those words
at the end of last message-- to be continued. And now it's continued. Now we're in the sequel. Verse 1 Chapter 2. "When the day of
Pentecost had fully come they were all in one
accord in one place." Now you are about to see-- you're about to
see the apostles, but you're about to
see different apostles. You see the last time
we saw the apostles in the gospels these guys
were unlearned and ignorant fishermen from Galilee. They still kind of are, but
now you read that they're bold. They sound articulate. They sound knowledgeable
of scripture. You know, these
blue collar workers, something happened to them. And I'm just setting
you up, because what did happen to them-- you
know what happened to them. There was number
one a new presence, and number two a new power. The new presence was
the resurrected Christ. They saw Jesus alive
after His death. That changed them forever. But then also a new power, the
Holy Spirit coming upon them and you will see now through
this book an empowerment. An empowerment as
the Holy Spirit fills them and they
go out into the world. So when the day of
Pentecost had fully come-- what is the day of Pentecost? Pentecost means 50th, and
it really literally refers to the 50th day after
the wave of the sheaf offering of first fruits as
spoken about in Leviticus 23. It comes after Passover. And it is one of the three
major festivals that Jews-- especially Jewish males--
especially those who lived around the environs of
Jerusalem and Judea-- they were required three times
a year to appear in the temple before the Lord
for these feasts. Pentecost was one of them. The day of Pentecost
had fully come. Now the day of Pentecost
becomes to the Church the most important day
of the Church's existence next to the death of Christ
and the Resurrection of Christ. Because it's the
birthday of the church. It's when it gets started. Jesus said I will build
My Church, Matthew 16, and the gates of hell will
not prevail against it. The promise is coming true. This is the birthday. This is when the Holy
Spirit baptizes them into the body of Christ
and fills them with power. And extraordinary things will
take place and you'll see them. And hopefully, by God's grace,
some of you in your lives will be able to experience that. I always want to experience
whatever the Lord has for me I get excited at the
prospect that the Lord might want to just tweak
my journey a little bit, change my course, give
me some new direction, some new gifts,
some new adventure. You know, the older you get,
you want to wake up excited in the morning. And it's always exciting to find
out what's God going to do now? Are things going to change? And hopefully you'll
experience more of the power of the Holy
Spirit in your life. Somebody came up to
me and said, you know, those three weeks
on the Holy Spirit just sent me into a whole
different mode and tone of just possibility. Good. I hope so. And I hope that
some of the things we read in the book of Acts,
you'll see in your own lives. On one hand, I have to
say you are in a dilemma because you go to this church. You go to that church
that, well, you believe that the Holy
Spirit can fill a person. So because you are open to
the filling of the Holy Spirit and the empowering
of the Holy Spirit, there are those in
the community go, oh, so you're one of those
crazy people, those wild people. But then, because
you are not wild, and you are not out of
control, and you believe that all things should be done
but done decently and in order, some on the other
side who just love to swing and dance
and froth and shout think that you're kind of
dead, because you don't have enough of the Holy Ghost. And so you're caught in between. And I'm glad you are, because
I think the key word here is balance. I do believe from the
scripture that there is a legitimate
filling and empowering where He gives gifts that are
mentioned in the Bible today. Today, it's for today. But I also believe
that it should be done decently and in order,
and that there should be organization of the organism. Somebody put it this way,
and I get the sentiment of it though I don't agree
technically with it, but I like the sentiment of it. Too much of the
word and you dry up. Too much of the spirit
and you blow up. Enough of both and
you'll grow up. So let's fix
ourselves on the word, be open to the filling of the
Holy Spirit, and let's grow up, and grow into the
future, and grow in God's power and God's grace. The day of Pentecost
has fully come. I'm not getting very far. And they were all in one
place, and this doesn't mean they were all in one car-- a Honda Accord-- they
were all in one accord. That would be like Guinness
Book of World Records 120 people in an accord. "But they were all
together in harmony with each other in one place. And suddenly, a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and
it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them
divided tongues as of fire and one sat on each of them. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
with other tongues as the spirit prompted them
or gave them utterance." On the day of Pentecost,
the early church, 120 of them in an upper room,
experienced three phenomena. One, was an audible phenomena. Two, there was a
visible phenomena. And three, there was
an oral phenomena. First of all, there
was something audible. They heard something, and
it was the sound of or as of a mighty rushing wind. Sorry, it's probably a
horrible interpretation of it, but when I read the
Bible, I try to hear it. Now, please, notice
the verbiage. It says "as of." He's not describing the weather
conditions in Jerusalem. It was a windy
day in Jerusalem-- or some meteorological
phenomena. It was a sound. They heard something. It was a sound as of
rushing mighty wind. It doesn't mean it was windy. It could have been
perfectly calm, but, they heard this sound. So it was an audible phenomenon. Now why a rushing mighty wind? Well, if you know your Bibles,
and I know some of you do, you know that the Lord spoke
to Job through a whirlwind. The Lord's voice came from that. You remember that
Jesus in Jerusalem was there with Nicodemus
and was probably walking outside as the breeze shot
through the trees above them, and He said, "the spirit
blows where he wills." And you hear the
sound of it, but you can't tell where it comes
from or where it's going. He likened the movement
of the Spirit to a wind. Also, did you know that
in Hebrew and in Greek, so Old Testament
and New Testament, the word in Hebrew for wind
is the same word for Spirit. And in Greek, the word for wind
is the same word for Spirit. So in the Old Testament Ruach
Hako'desh is literally Spirit the Holy. The Holy Spirit
is Ruach, Spirit. If you were to say,
there's a wind here and you were in Jerusalem,
you would use the word ruach. It's wind. Same word, spirit and wind. In the Greek language,
same principle. Spirit in Greek is
Pneuma or Pneumatos. And it is also the same
word for breath or wind. So they hear something. It's something that is an
audible phenomenon, a sound of a rushing mighty wind. And it filled the whole house
where they were sitting, so that got their attention. Then, here's the
second phenomenon. Then, there appeared to
them divided tongues-- now notice again-- as of fire. So don't think that their
hair is getting burned. It's like, ahh! That's hot. It's what they saw. It's a visible
phenomenon as of fire. Doesn't necessitate that
they're deriving heat from it. It's something they saw,
divided tongues as of fire and sat upon each of them. Why fire? Well, again, if you
know your Bibles, you know that
sometimes fire was used as a symbol of God's presence. What did Moses see in Exodus 3? He walked by something
that was a burning bush. It was burning but not consumed. And the angel of the Lord
spoke to him through that Bush. Said, take your shoes
off, your on holy ground. On Mt. Sinai when God spoke
and gave the law, there was lightning, and
thunder, and fire, and smoke, a symbol of the presence of God. What was it that directed
the children of Israel by night for 40 years
through the wilderness? A pillar of fire. So these are symbols
that they would be, as Jewish people in
their history, familiar with. Wind and fire, a symbol
of the presence of God, a symbol of the Spirit of God. "And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit." Now something about
Pentecost, and I'm just-- I'm laying groundwork. You know, I always bite
off more than I can chew. I fully believed I'm going to
get all the way through Chapter 2 in one setting even if
there's a lot of verse. I can do that. And if you were willing
to sit two hours, I would, too, but
that's unrealistic. It's unrealistic on
a number of levels. But what we're reading
about, this event is an atypical event. It's an atypical,
non-repeatable event. You never read of what
happened at Pentecost happening ever again like this. So this is something. Why does this happen? Because it's the
birthday of the Church. This is day one of the Church. God is getting their attention. Only 120 of them
are in this Church. And it says, "They were all
filled with the Holy Spirit." All 120, including
Mary, the mother of Jesus, including Mary and
Martha, including the Twelve Apostles. "They were all,
all of them, were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they began to speak
with other tongues as the Spirit gave
them utterance. And there were dwelling in
Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred,
the multitude came together, and they were confused
because everyone heard them speak in his own language." His own dialecto--
his own dialect. Now Galileans-- you
know about Galileans-- everybody in Jerusalem
thought of Galileans as what? I've told you before. Hicks. Hicks. They're just, you know-- I won't do it, but uneducated,
uncouth, country bumpkins. And a Galilean would speak and
say, oh, my goodness, so dumb. But something gets
their attention. They're not only
speaking other languages. They're speaking
in direct dialects of people who have come
to the Feast of Pentecost, Jewish people, who are from
all over the known world. And some of the places
it's a three day journey there to Jerusalem,
at least, if not more. And a three day journey
or a week journey back. So they're from
afar, and people are going, how is it that
these Galileans are able to speak our dialect? And it says Verse 7, "They
were amazed and marveled saying to one another,
look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear
each one in our own language in which we were born-- Parthian, Medes, Elamites, those
dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia. Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and parts of Libya joining Cyrene, visitors
from Rome both Jews and Prosylites,
Cretans--" that's from the island of
Crete-- "and Arabs. We hear them speaking
in our own tongues the wonderful works of God." They are speaking
in known languages on the day of Pentecost. Fast forward, I won't
go into this deep because we want to
wait till we get there. But 1 Corinthians 14-- 12, 13, 14 talk about gifts
of the Spirit, and Chapter 14 goes into depth about
the gift of tongues. He uses a different word there. He uses the word glossolalia. Some of you who have a
Pentecostal background, you may not know Greek words,
but you probably know that one because that was taught to you. Glossolalia is a Greek word
used in 1 Corinthians 14. The huge difference between
the tongues in Acts 2 and the tongues in
1 Corinthians 14-- Acts 2 understandable languages. Acts Chapter 14, unable to
understand those languages without a special
gift of the Spirit called the gift of the
interpretation of tongues. Undiscernible, unable
to discern them. So it's not the same thing. Why do I bring that up? Because some people say,
well, the gift of tongues was given to the early Church
so they could preach the gospel. That's not why the gift
of tongues was given. In fact, they are not
preaching the gospel in this as you will see. I want to point that
out to you in a minute. They're not
preaching the gospel. They're not using this to convey
a message to human beings. But there are
similarities but there are differences in the 1
Corinthians 14 gift of tongues and the Acts Chapter 2. Again, Acts Chapter 2 is
atypical, non-repeatable event. It is the day of Pentecost,
the birthday of the Church. These tongues are
in known languages to get the attention
of outsiders. The 1 Corinthians 14 gift of
tongues is not for outsiders. In fact, Paul says if somebody
is in your assembly who is unlearned, they don't get
it they're an unbeliever, and they hear you
speak in tongues, they're going to
think you're nuts. They're going to
think you're crazy. Now why would they
think you're crazy? Well, because it's a language
that you don't understand, that they don't understand. It's not the same kind
of speaking in tongues. And in 1 Corinthians
14 Paul says whoever speaks in an unknown
tongue does not speak to man but he speaks to God. And he doesn't
understand, no one understands him, however, in
the Spirit he speaks mysteries. So what are these tongues
in 1 Corinthians 14? Well, we're going to wait
till we get to 1 Corinthians 14, because we're not in it. I'm just kind of showing
you the difference. But there is a difference. There is a huge difference. But they noticed we can
understand their language. And I want you to
look at Verse 11, because I said they're
not preaching the gospel. In fact, they don't begin the
gospel preaching till Verse 14. And what people hear is
Verse 11, Cretans, Arabs we hear them speaking
in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. They're not hearing preaching. They're hearing praising. Now this does fit
1 Corinthians 14 which is something that
is given to the Church, the ability to speak in a
tongue which is a prayer or a praise to God. There's no such thing,
according to the Bible, as a message in tongues. Again, 1 Corinthians
14:2, "Whoever speaks in an unknown tongue
does not speak to men but speaks to God. No one understands
him but in the Spirit he speaks mysteries." So an interpretation
of a tongue is going to sound like somebody
magnifying the Lord, praising the Lord, or
praying to the Lord. It's directed to
God, not to man. There's no message in tongues. There's a prophecy, but
there's no message in tongues. So they're hearing praise. So Verse 12, "They
were all amazed and perplexed,
saying to one another whatever could this mean? Others mocking--"
there's always mockers. Every crowd, every situation,
every event there's going to be a mocker. I know because I
grew up as a mocker. And hopefully, I'm
more repentant of that as years go on. Others mocking said,
they're full of new wine. They've just been drinking
too much, man, You know, you'll say anything. Really amazing how
articulate these drunk people can be in foreign languages. That's the best little thing
they could come up with. They have to resort--
and most people who don't have good arguments
or good skills in logic, they have to, in an argument
or a position like this, resort to what is called
an ad hominem attack. You can't deal with the
issue intellectually or satisfactorily, so you
just attack the person. Oh, they're a bunch of idiots,
that's an ad hominem attack. Instead of saying, what's wrong? Let me dismantle your argument. Let's talk about the
argument, the issue, without getting to
something personal. But this is a personal attack. They're drinking new wines. Now let me just suggest
to you a strategy. You've got Jews from
all over the known world from Iran, from Iraq,
Mesopotamia area, Tigris, Euphrates River Valley. There are Jews who
have come to Jerusalem. You have some from North Africa,
Libya, Cyrene, etc., Egypt. You have some as far as Rome. You have some from Asia Minor. All these areas mentioned
are from Asia Minor. All these lands
are in Jerusalem. Now they're about-- they
heard this phenomena. They're about to
hear the gospel. Many of them are
going to get saved. So in getting saved,
in hearing the gospel, and believing in
Jesus Christ, imagine what's going to happen
as they go back home-- three days' journey, a week
journey into their lands-- carrying the gospel. This explains why
when Paul would visit a couple of
different areas, he finds a church already
there, believers already there. And he hasn't
plowed that ground. Well, who did? I think some of these guys and
gals who heard, and believed, and they went back,
and they started sharing what they
heard, what they saw, what the Lord did
in their lives. Now let me suggest this as a
possible strategy for missions. Jesus did say go into all the
world, and preach the gospel, but what do you do if
the world comes to you? Well, you know, if you
think about it economically, you could sure
save a lot of money instead of just sending mission
groups out all over the world. If you actually discovered
that-- here at UNM, we have international
students from-- and they're the brightest--
from different countries in the world. The best and the brightest, they
come to American universities. They have different
backgrounds, different cultures, different religions. To befriend them, to share
with them, to get them saved, imagine what will
happen if they go back to their family
and their country. So yes, you could spend
thousands and thousands of dollars, and organize
the trip and go out-- and we should go. It doesn't mean we shouldn't
go, but we could sort of rethink this. And since we all
can't do that, there are some living right here. Let's pray through a strategy
to reach local foreigners on our soil, love them,
invite them to church, invite them over to
coffee, tea, because that's more customary in their
culture, dinner, et cetera, and see what the Lord
could do with that. I saw this and I
thought cool strategy, maybe we should employ this. So crowds mocking saying
they're drunk, full of new wine. Now you're about to hear the
first sermon ever preached, and it's preached by ta-da-- Peter. Peter? You mean that Peter? Mr. Foot in his mouth,
sandal in his mouth Peter? The guy who said a lot
of stupid stuff Peter? The guy who denied Jesus Peter? Yep, the very same Peter who now
is fulfilling what Jesus said. Jesus said, Peter, Satan
has been asking for you. He wants to sift you like wheat. But I prayed for you, Peter,
and when you are restored, strengthen your brethren. Jesus promised
Peter that he would fail because he's
being attacked, but he would be restored. And Jesus in John
21 restored him. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Commissioned him again. Now we see Peter filled
with the Holy Spirit after seeing the
resurrected Lord. And Peter, the fisherman,
the bumbling fisherman, is now a lean, mean
preaching machine. I mean, when I read
this sermon, it's like, this guy is all over it. It's an expository sermon. It's deep in scripture. The way he applies the text. Now New Testament preaching
in the book of Acts contained a couple of things. Number one, a proclamation of
the gospel and an exhortation to repent. There was always
the gospel which included the death,
burial, Resurrection, and Exultation of Christ. And he'll do that in 20 seconds. I mean, he'll just 30
seconds, he'll cover all that. Then there's an exhortation
to repent and be baptized. So he's going to not
just give information, he's going to call
for transformation. And you'll see
this as a template throughout the book of Acts. So here comes the first sermon. "Peter standing up with
the 11 raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea
and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to
you and heed my words. For these are not drunk as
you suppose since it's only 9 o'clock in the morning." That's what it means by
third hour of the day. These guys aren't sauced. The bars aren't even open. It's 9 o'clock in the morning. "But this is what was
spoken by the prophet." And I have to say, in
this particular verse I do miss the old
King James which I love to read in my devotions. He just said, they're not drunk. This isn't them being drunk
and he goes, but this is that. Which was spoken of by
the prophets, so they're going, well, what is this? And he goes, well, this is that. This is that which was spoken
of by Joel the prophet. Now I'm bringing this
up for this reason. Whenever you practice
something as a Christian person and people say, well,
why do you do that? Here's the wrong answer. Well, because I've
always done it. Well, because I was taught
to do that by parents, grandparents, or this is
what my church believes. Those are not satisfactory
answers for you to say why you do what you do. The only satisfactory answer
is a scriptural answer. This-- what I'm doing-- is that which was spoken
of by the prophet. You are able to then point
to a scriptural basis for whatever you believe
in or whatever you do. And so that's what Peter does. He points to the
scripture and says, this is that or this is what
was spoken by the prophet Joel, and it shall come to
pass in the last days. He thought. "Last days, says God,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy. Your young men
shall see visions. Your old men shall
dream dreams." The last days-- you see
that little phrase-- Peter says that they
are in the last days. 2,000 years ago they're
in the last days. Some of you read that and go,
it's a little embarrassing. Because really they
weren't in the last days. I mean, 2,000 years past. It's kind of embarrassing
to point that out to anybody who's prescient,
and who can think a thought, and who is cognizant,
and say it's the last days, because that
happened 2,000 years ago. Nothing changed. But what you need
to know is this. The last days begins at
the first coming of Jesus and ends at the second coming. That's how they saw the second-- granted, they may have thought
the Lord would come back at any moment. The true Church
has always believed the Lord can come back, and
he said he's coming back. But the last days technically
have lasted for 2,000 years and here's why. The Old Testament
are the old days. The Old Testament is over. Behold I make a new
covenant with the house of Israel, Jeremiah 31. The last days are the
days of the Church, and this is the
birthday of the Church. So the last days
begin technically at the first coming
of Jesus, flower at the birth of
the Church, and end when Jesus comes back again. So don't let that
phrase throw you. Hebrews Chapter 1 Verse 1 says-- I'm just reading it in my head. Hold on. God, who at different
times in different ways spoke in times past to our
fathers by the prophets, listen, has in these
last days spoken to us through His Son Jesus Christ. The idea is once and for all
He has spoken through His Son. So we're in the last days. Now you can even narrow
that down first John Chapter 2 Verse 18, Little children,
it is the last hour. And you have heard that
the Antichrist is coming, but many Antichrist have
already come whereby we know it is the last hour. So the last days
is that technical, biblical phrase after the
thousands of years of the other covenants-- the old covenant,
the final covenant-- that begins with Jesus and
ends with His Second Coming, and embodies the last days. So we're still in the last days. Now I happen to think we're in
the last days of the last days. I think just by seeing what's
going on around the world, it's like, OK, so the
clock keeps ticking. But we're on borrowed time. I mean, we're like-- we're like leaning
toward the edge. The Lord could come
back at any moment. Something else-- I love this. He's quoting Joel
Chapter 2, and He says your sons and daughters-- also in Verse 17, your
young men will see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Now all types of
people are included, but did you know that
Christianity was largely and initially a youth movement? Do you think the
disciples really looked like they do in the
pictures and in the holy cards? I've seen these pictures of
the disciples, the apostles, at the Last Supper
and different events. What's striking about
them is they're old men. They've got gray hair. Hey, Jesus, I'm following you. Slowly, but I'm coming. I mean, Jesus started His
ministry at 30, died at 33. His disciples, his
apostles, later on were probably not
older, probably even younger than that. And typically you find
great movements of God though there's always
theological underpinnings and there's room
for every age group. Thank God, because I'm
not a young man anymore. But I find that the Lord
works through in a special way and looks for the use
of young men and women. And why is that? Well, most people are
saved at a young age. First of all
conversion, if you were to look at who gets saved at
what age, almost down the line, it's somebody who's very young. That's when they're first
impressionable, open. They open their hearts. They receive Christ
at a young age. Movements, church plants,
missionaries, though they can be at any age, any age. And we've seen some go out,
typically, it's with the young. Why? Well, they have more energy. They have more energy. And they don't have
all the hangups that we have when we get older. I can say that now
as an older person. The older you get,
you get narrower, you have more hangups, you
have more particularities about things. You get a little weird, and
wonky, and goofy, and reserved, and even religious. And all those things,
ugh, I don't like. But I find myself even
becoming like that. And so, yes, there
are young and old, but thank God for the
energy, the vision, of the next generations. I'm always looking for sons and
daughters who will prophesy. Yeah, just leave me home. I'll dream my dreams. No, I'll go out with you. I want some of the action. Verse 18, "And on my
menservants and on my maidservants,--" notice please,
notice it's not just male, it's male and female. Menservants and maidservants. "I will pour out my
Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. And I will show
wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth beneath. Blood, fire, vapor of smoke,
the sun will be turned into darkness the moon into
blood before the coming of the great and awesome
day of the Lord." Now he is quoting
Joel 2, and Joel 2 is all about the day
of the Lord which is known as in the New
Testament, the Great Tribulation Period. He's not saying we're in the
Great Tribulation Period. What he's saying is you are
seeing a preview of coming attractions. You are seeing the Holy
Spirit on the birthday of the Church poured out. And it's starting now, and
it's going to continue. And it's a preview
of what's really going to be poured out in
the end of the last days before the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ. It begins now and it
continues all the way through. You're seeing a preview of that. You're seeing a
partial fulfillment of Joel, not a
total fulfillment, because the total
fulfillment will come in the Tribulation
followed by the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, and
in between those two events, The Second Coming. So notice in Verse 20, that
phrase, "the day of the Lord," is a reference to
the return of Christ. And the day of the Lord
includes Tribulation, and Great Tribulation, and
Jesus coming back, and inaugurating and initiating
the Millennial Kingdom. You'll find that written like
that in the Old Testament. That's understood
in Jewish theology. "And it shall come to pass
that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." What do you have
to do to be saved? We've got to call in
the name of the Lord. Yeah, some people, what do
you have to do to be saved? Well, you have to be
baptized in our church. And you have to show
yourself a stalwart member by participating in these
covenant activities. That poor thief
on the cross then, maybe Jesus led him astray,
because He just said today you'll be with Me in Paradise. He just called out his
name, remember me when you come into your Kingdom. OK. That's faith right there. You believe? Whoever calls on the name of
the Lord-- now that, of course, embodies faith. Repentance is a part of faith,
turning from and turning to, not just I'm going to add
Jesus to my little curriculum and do my deal. Oh, and God's a part of it, too. It's not like I'm a
Hollywood actor where I just feel obligated to say, and
I thank God for this award. I thank my, you know, whatever. There's to be a reality
of calling on His name and trusting and
believing in His name. Looking at the time, OK. "Men of Israel,
hear these words." Now he's making up, "Hear
these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you." Stop right there. Peter is speaking to an
audience that is what? What religion are they? They're Jewish. What are they expecting
for thousands of years? They're expecting what? A Messiah. Well, they don't believe
Jesus is the Messiah, 120 do. Peter's the spokesperson. He wants the Jewish
audience to know why Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He gives three proofs. Proof number one, His
signs and wonders. His miracles. His works That's
proof number one. "Jesus of Nazareth, a man
attested by God to you by miracles, wonders,
and signs which God did through Him in your
midst as you, yourselves, also know." You might try to talk about it,
and say we're drunk with wine and push it away. But you know better,
because you saw it happen. It happened in front
of you in this town. So the proof is the miracles. Jesus Himself said
John the Baptist bears testimony of who I am. But I have a greater
witness than John. The works that I do
bear witness of Me. He also said believe that I am
in the Father and the Father is in Me, or at least believe
for the very sake of the works themselves. Nicodemus, a Sanhedrin member
in Jerusalem in John Chapter 3 said, Master we know that you
are a prophet come from God, a teacher come from God, for no
one can do the signs that you do unless God is with Him. So they knew it. His miracles attest
to who He was. Proof number one that Jesus
is the Messiah, His works. Verse 23, Him, Jesus, being
delivered interesting-- I tell you, Peter is
like a brill dude. That means he's a brilliant man. He's a he's a brill dude. He's a fisherman, but
it's like, this is Peter? "Him being delivered by
the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you
have taken by lawless hands and crucified and put to death." Now please notice that
Peter in one sentence marries the sovereignty of God
and the responsibility of man in one package. So would you quit
arguing about that issue? I mean it's been argued about
for the last 1600-1700 years. But can't we just
figure that Peter was able to see both of them
working in harmony together? God is sovereign, at the
same time man is responsible. Man is culpable just
because God wanted it to happen for
redemption, that does not erase the culpability
of mankind for killing Jesus. So there was a
murder that went on. But there was redemption,
because Jesus said nobody takes My life from Me. I give it of Myself. Both things happened. One is from the
divine perspective. The other is from the
human perspective. He puts them in one package. Him being delivered by
the determined counsel and the foreknowledge
of God, you have taken by lawless
hands or sinful hands, crucified and put to death. Verse 24, "Whom God
raised up, having loosed the pains of death,
because it was not possible that He should be held by it. Proof number two,
the Resurrection. Proof number one,
look what Jesus did. Signs, miracles, wonders. You saw it, you know it. Number two, Resurrection. We saw it. Now this is masterful. Oh, and by the way why
was the Resurrection so important to Peter as a follow
up point to the miracles that Jesus did? Because they're
listening, they're stroking their little
Pharisee beards, listening to Peter preach. Yeah, OK, cool. They would readily admit--
they would have to admit-- they already have admitted
Jesus is a miracle worker. So they will concede
his first point, but they're thinking in their
minds, yeah, He did miracles, but He's dead. He died. If He's God's Messiah, he died. He's a miracle
worker, but He died. So Peter knowing
their thinking said, but God raised Him to life. The Resurrection becomes
now the focal point of the preaching in
the New Testament. For David says concerning
Him-- and I'll probably just be able to just brush
into this and then stop. "I foresaw the Lord
always before my face." He's quoting Psalm 16,
"For he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart
rejoiced, my tongue was glad. Moreover my flesh will
rest in hope You will not leave my soul in Hades." The grave, that's the
Old Testament word. That is equivalent to the New
Testament [GREEK] in Greek. Hades the grave. You will not leave my soul
in the grave in Hades, nor will you allow your
Holy One to see corruption. Now David wrote Psalm
16, "You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full
of joy in your presence. Men and brethren let me speak
freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is
both dead and buried, and his tomb is
with us to this day. And when you come with us
to Jerusalem, if you'd like, when we go to the upper room on
the area known as Mount Zion, remind me, and I'll
point out to you where David's tomb is
celebrated or kept to this day. "Therefore, being a
prophet--" you didn't know David was a prophet. You always thought
he was a psalmist. "And knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to Him that of the fruit of His
body according to the flesh, He would raise up the
Christ to sit on His Throne. He foreseeing this
spoke concerning the Resurrection of Christ that
his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh
see corruption." We're going to stop there
because the time is up. But I am often asked, and I
want to explain next time. I'm often asked,
well, where does the Bible predict
the Resurrection in the Old Testament? I want to show you
clearly and plainly where the Old Testament predicts
the Resurrection of Jesus. And this becomes
Peter's whole point. But we'll have to wait
to get it next time. To be continued. Thank you, Father, for Your Word
and for these precious lovers of God, these [GREEK],,
these brethren who love you, love one
another, love Your truth, love to dig deep and
make application. Lord, we are a community
of your people, but we are a textual community. We are bound together by
the text of scripture, the word delivered to us,
delivered to the Saints once for all as Jude wrote. Thank you, Lord, that
we have the time. And then, when
we're out of time, we just wait and
move on next time. But Father as we
close this prayer, we realize there may
not be a next time, because Jesus may come between
now and next Wednesday. Even so, come quickly
Lord Jesus for your bride. It's in His name we pray, Amen. For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit calvaryabq.org.
