The End of the Beginning

An introduction through the first 2 chapters of Acts as we begin 2021 and see the history of the early church as God provided and they proclaimed the Gospel!

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Introduction

86400. That’s how many seconds are in each day. That sounds like a whole lot, but let’s breakdown how we spend our time. Let’s suppose you sleep for 7 hours a night as that’s what they recommend humans get each night. There goes 25200 seconds and you have just over 60000 seconds remaining. The average person spends an hour commuting to work/school - there goes another 3600 seconds. If you go to school/work, you’re there around 8 hours more times than not, there goes 28800 and you have 8 hours left. Everyone has to eat and eating takes time - there goes another two hours. 6 hours left. You spend time with family in various ways, either by watching a movie, talking in the living room, playing outside, there goes another hour. 5 hours left. The house doesn’t take care of itself, so you have to do some work around the house, there goes another 30 minutes. You play on your phone or text friends, there goes another hour and a half. Down to 3 hours. We live out in the middle of nowhere, so that hour commute time that the average person has doesn’t really apply. Add 30 minutes to that, add 30 minutes of doing some extra work around the house, add 30 minutes to doing homework and 30 minutes browsing the internet or reading a book and you’re left with what? 1 hour. 36000 seconds.

Every family is different. Every person is different. Maybe you’re up from the crack of dawn, don’t require any sleep, and you work all day long - seriously, some of you are that way and praise the Lord for that! But maybe you’re the person who goes to school, gets home and you have all afternoon to yourself to do whatever you want. To all of us this morning, how do you spend your time? If you were to make a pie chart with your 86400 seconds each day, how would the pie chart look? Would there be some areas that you would be shocked how much time you spend doing things that don’t have much significance? Would you be shocked how much time you spend driving and literally doing nothing more than playing music? Would you be a little bit convicted of the things that you do and the things that you fail to do? If all of us answer honestly, we all have areas to improve in how we budget our time.

In Scripture we talk about giving sometimes in relation to finances and many people are stuck with the 10% outline given to us in the Old Testament. 10% is a great starting point. It’s a great minimum, but think about giving for a moment. Do we just give financially? No. We also give with our time. Does God just want 10% of you? Couples who are married, if you just spent 10% of your time with your boyfriend/girlfriend whenever you were dating, do you think that relationship would have grown like it should have? Absolutely not. Christ doesn’t want 10% of you. He demands all of you. He gives us what we have and we are commanded to steward it wisely and yes that includes finances but it certainly includes our time.

Whenever we look around in our world today, many people are concerned for a variety of reasons. Many Christians are upset and uncertain and there is a temptation to spend all of our time focused on ourselves and on internal matters. Friends, the reality that Scripture gives us is that the end has begun. As the expression says, we’re a second away from midnight. The Holy Spirit has come and we are called to go and make disciples - not to have the Holy Spirit and sit on our hands and waste our days away on Netflix and books. We are called to rise and redeem the time. There is no time to waste! As we will see in the book of Acts this morning, we must pay attention and get to work, because the last days are here.

Acts 2:14–21 CSB

14 Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning. 16 On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 17 And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. 18 I will even pour out my Spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women and they will prophesy. 19 I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below: blood and fire and a cloud of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. 21 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

The Time Has Come (14-17a)

Have you ever been in a situation where someone slanders you? They’re spreading lies about you publicly and what they are saying isn’t particularly nice? If you’ve ever gone to public school, you’ve undoubtedly experienced this reality. We left off last week with some of these Jews from around the world sneering and saying that these followers of Jesus are drunk on some new wine. Whenever someone says something false about you there are a couple of different ways that you can proceed. You can fight fire with fire and lots of people do this. An eye for an eye! If you spread a lie about me, I’ll spread a lie about you. Others cower down and complain but don’t do anything about the problem. What does Jesus say to do in such situations? Turn to them the other cheek. What a revolutionary concept for our world.

Peter addresses these people who make this claim and he says that everyone needs to pay attention because he and these others aren’t drunk… They’re filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s only 9 in the morning so obviously they’re not drunk because it’s too early. Some people try to read things into the text and say that Jesus and His followers never drank wine. You have to do some theological gymnastics to make that work because we are told that Jesus turned water into wine and we see the practice occasionally in the church, especially with the Lord’s Supper - they didn’t have grape juice back in the day. Peter isn’t getting defensive here, rather he’s making a bit of a joke. It’s too early to be drunk because its 9 in the morning.

Furthermore, in studying Jewish history, 9am was normally an hour in which the people would pray and they would eat after that point. Peter is correcting their misunderstanding in a lighthearted way. He gains their attention, makes a joke of sorts and then proceeds to tell them the significance of what has happened!

So what is the significance? What has transpired? What is the big news?

Peter quotes from Joel 2 in the coming verses to share with these Jews what has happened. It’s no longer about waiting for this time in the future… No, God has sent His Spirit. As FF Bruce says, “This is it!” The time has come.

How many of you enjoy watching a good war movie or action film? During these types of films there often is a time in which the main character or “good guys” are preparing for a fight or battle and a leader steps up and delivers a speech to pump everyone up for the upcoming conflict! Just as the general would give such a speech to his soldiers, Peter is giving this opening call to action in his sermon here. No more waiting. That time has come and gone. Now is the time to act.

Why is it the time to act? Because verse 17 says that in the last days, God will pour out His Spirit. What does it mean by the last days? Whenever you were a senior in high school, you had a countdown to graduation. For many of you, whenever January and February rolled around, you knew specifically how many days you had until you were done! You knew when your last day was. But what happened afterward? After you graduated, did things change? Certainly. Did you still do things, though? Yes. Some went to college while others entered the workforce. Even though that last day of school came and went, you still had things to look forward to - just like the student who has their last day of junior year and begins to look ahead to their senior year immediately afterward. In Scripture we see a lot of talk about the last day or the last days. Is that talking about the end of one year in school? No. It’s talking about the end of life as we know it and we are living in those days right now, friends. I’m not just talking about the 21st century either… I’m talking about the entire history of the church has been lived in light of the reality that the last days are here.

Some people describe this reality by dividing life as we know it into 4 realities. In Scripture there is creation, there is the fall, there is redemption, and there will be restoration. Where are we living in this narrative? Christ died on the cross for our sins and redeems His church, so we are waiting on the final act if you will… the restoration of the world. How is this restoration taking place? By the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing the dead to life! This will ultimately come to the culmination in the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.

Because we are living in the last days, God has poured out His Spirit on all people. What does this mean? Does this mean that the Holy Spirit resides in every single person on the planet? We know that’s not true because people reject Jesus Christ as their Lord and they fail to repent and trust in Him. 1 Corinthians 1 speaks to this truth

1 Corinthians 1:23 CSB

23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles.

Yet, here in Acts 2 and in Joel 2, Peter and Joel talk about the reality that the Spirit will be poured out on all people. Are they wrong? No. We talked about this last week. The Kingdom of God is comprised of every nation, tribe, tongue, and language. All peoples are a part of the Kingdom of God - we have to look at this corporately.

What to Expect (17b-20)

Because the time is now, because the Spirit has come, what changes? The short answer is everything.

Have you ever been asked the question, “Would you rather lose your sight or your hearing?” This was a commonly asked question in youth group several years ago. The question truly puts you between a rock and a hard place and the only right answer is to say, “I’ll keep both!” Seriously, though, can you imagine not being able to see or to hear? I can’t. Can you imagine if you could only see in black and white? Wouldn’t that be a dull way to live? It would be strange! Consider your life before you were a follower of Jesus Christ. You lived your life, you had your friends, you had a job, you did nice things, but isn’t it but a shadow of the life that you live now?

The early church father Augustine once said this, “All creation is good… But the Creator of creation is supremely good.” What is Augustine getting at here? God created the world and He said, “It was good.” But who deserves our worship, creation or the creator? Certainly it is God who deserves our devotion, worship, and affection because of all that He has done for us! Yet so many people worship the creation. They settle for living in black and white and they think that that’s all that there is. As Romans 1 says,

Romans 1:22–23 CSB

22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.

Do we know people who have done this very thing? We all know at least one because that used to be us. We used to claim to be smart but in reality we were lost in utter darkness. We were dead in our sins and trespasses. But God… What has He done?

Colossians 1:13 CSB

13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.

When you and I were hopelessly lost, Christ rescued us and God has sealed us with His Holy Spirit. Aren’t you thankful this morning for the incredible gift of salvation that was set in motion in eternity past amongst the 3 persons of the Trinity? We serve a mighty God!

Because the Spirit has come, because the last days are here, what will be the outcome? What will the Spirit do? Joel says that sons and daughters will prophesy, see visions, and dream dreams. God will display signs and wonders as the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. This has the feel of Revelation more than it sounds like the Gospels or Acts! Many people have tried to determine what exactly is going on here and what these specific signs are. Remember, Peter is quoting from Joel 2 and Peter is saying that this time has now come. Peter is not primarily looking ahead to a day in the future where we look for blood moons and signs on the earth… Rather, he is saying that God has poured out His Spirit and that God has displayed these signs. When was the sun turned to darkness that Peter would have been aware of?

Mark 15:33 CSB

33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon.

A little more than 7 weeks before Peter’s sermon, Jerusalem had seen the darkening of the sun and scholars note that there was a lunar eclipse on April 3, 33AD that likely turned the moon blood-red. Why is this so important? The Spirit had come and the message of salvation was to be shared to all people - but there was a reminder that the ominous Day of the Lord, the day of judgment, was coming. The last days have begun, we know that many people are quick to say that we are living in the last days to which I agree wholeheartedly because the book of Acts said the same thing 2000 years ago!

There is so much mystery about the days that we are living in. We look around and see all sorts of crazy things going on in our world. We see division, we see conflict, we see evil on the rise all around us and as Christians it can be easy to begin to wave the white flag or desire to be a hermit in a log cabin in the woods and live out the rest of our days in peace and quiet - seriously, I’ve talked with people who say this exact thing. What’s the problem with this mentality, though? Are we supposed to isolate ourselves and wait for Christ to return? No. As hard as it might be, we are supposed to go out into the world and share about Jesus Christ. This is the example given to us in Scripture and it’s what we see Christians do throughout the history books. This is our call today. We go and tell others to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand and we aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. This isn’t the most popular of messages, but it is what we’re told to do by the King of Kings.

The Gospel Hope (21)

What is the good news at the conclusion of our text? It’s the Gospel call. It’s the eternal assurance we have as followers of Jesus Christ that once we belong to Him, we don’t have to worry about that ever changing because of the truth in God’s Word

Philippians 1:6 CSB

6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

We have this hope because God started this good work in us. Because it’s God’s work and not our work, we don’t have to worry about our works not being good enough. Rather, we only have to look to the cross to see that the work of Jesus Christ paid it all. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

What does it mean to call upon the Lord, though? Do we simply have to walk down an aisle? Do we have to repeat some magical formula? Do we have to memorize the books of the Bible or have perfect church attendance? No - it’s not about any of those things. Calling on the name of the Lord looks like what we see at the end of Peter’s sermon in Acts 2.

Acts 2:37–38 CSB

37 When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You must repent. If you call on Jesus but you think that you’re perfect or that you don’t need Him to save you then you don’t understand what salvation is. The hope of the Gospel is that Christ did what you couldn’t do. He came, lived a perfect life, died the death that we deserved to die, rose from the grave and ascended back on high to prepare a place for all who repent, place their faith in Jesus, and live for Him as a new creation. Have you done this? Has the Gospel changed your life?

Application

We are called to prophesy

Maybe you’re a little confused about this because we’ve talked before about how there are no modern prophets, or at least not in the way that we see them throughout Scripture. What does this look like? In the Old Testament the prophets knew God intimately and they proclaimed His Word faithfully to others. We have the same privilege and commission. Many Old Testament prophets knew God intimately through visions, signs, and even dreams. Can God work through those means today? Absolutely - He’s God! However, those are rare. How does God most often communicate with us? Through His Word. We have access to God through His Word today! Therefore, because we know Him and His Word, we are called to share it with others. Our mission is to declare the Word to the world. As we continue to go through the book of Acts, this will be a recurring theme and we must examine how we are doing in this regard because it is just as much our command as followers of Jesus Christ as it was their command 2000 years ago!

We must have urgency

The end has begun. The Kingdom of God is at hand and there remains time to repent, trust in Christ, and follow Him today… But time is running out. The hourglass has been turned and the grains of sand are falling down one by one never to be replaced again. Friends, time is precious for so many reasons but one of the biggest reasons is because it gives us the opportunity to share about Jesus with others before its too late. How can you use your time more wisely so that you have urgency to share with others? You don’t have to be a doomsday prepper or a conspiracy theorist by any means. But we must also avoid being lazy and lethargic as we take things for granted. We must have urgency as we live with a kingdom mindset.

Conclusion

What are you doing for the Kingdom today?

If you’ve been keeping up to date with the news, people are focusing on all sorts of things. From stocks to weather to the super bowl to COVID to our nation - people care about so many things.

Our actions are the outflow of our priorities. If you prioritize your health, you’ll live a certain way. If you prioritize your family, you’ll spend time with them. If you care about the Chiefs, you’ll be watching the super bowl and cheering them on. If you say that you are a follower of Jesus Christ, how should you live in light of that reality? You can’t live like a non-Christian. You can’t live how you used to live. You are a new creation. Being a Christian and living for Christ becomes your highest priority… I mean highest. Being a Christian comes before being a part of your family as Jesus declares in Matthew 10:35 and it comes before any other affiliation you have. You are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with others and have a healthy amount of urgency as you do so. The most important things that you can do today are to: share the Gospel and make disciples.

It’s easy to talk a good talk about what we believe but do your actions back that up? The end is near and there are souls all around us who need to know about Jesus.

What are you doing for the Kingdom of God right now? How can you and how can we step up in this time?

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