Awakening
Acts • Sermon • Submitted
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· 3 viewsPentecost changed the course of human history. The Holy Spirit pushes the people of God to do big things for God.
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If you have your Bible, go ahead and grab it. We are going to be in Acts 2 today. I want to ask you guys a question, what do you think one of the biggest turning points in history is? What Luke has recorded for us in this chapter is a turning point of human history. Here in Acts 2 we are going to see the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. There are about 40 verses that we could be looking at tonight but I don’t think that we will have the time to go through that so we will break them up into 5 distinct headings that I think we can get through today: The meaning behind the Spirit’s coming, the outgoing work of God, God’s promises fulfilled, Peter’s Christ-centric sermon, and the demand for a response. Let’s go ahead and read verses 1-11. Luke writes,
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”
The Meaning Behind the Spirit’s Coming
The Meaning Behind the Spirit’s Coming
Let’s talk about the meaning behind the coming of the Holy Spirit so let’s zone in ono those first 4 verses. If you were here last week, you’ll remember that Jesus told the Apostles to stay in Jerusalem until they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and Luke refers to the Holy Spirit as that which is promised by God the Father. If you go back further and look at the Gospel of John, you will see that Christ made a promise to His followers that they would not be left as orphans. He says in John 14:16-17 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” I believe that nothing satisfies and comforts the heart of man than the truth of the Christian faith. Notice what Christ says in these verses. The Holy Spirit will be our helper, or as some translations put it, our comforter. What do we need a comforter for? Because the Lord knows that walking the Christian walk is not always easy. As we are going to see later on in the book of Acts, it is through many tribulations that Christians enter into the Kingdom of God. If we were left on our own to live out our faith, none of us would be able to stand. The reason that Christians all over the world from the time of the Apostles to now have been able to go to their deaths rejoicing is becuase of the fulfillment of the promise of John 14. Christians are able to march into the fiery furnace of affliction because they have the Holy Spirit of God Himself as their helper. Notice the next thing that Christ promises us: the Holy Spirit is not just with us for a moment. The Holy Spirit is eternal just as God the Father and Christ the Son are eternal so the Spirit has always existed but the Spirit did not dwell with men in the Old Testament like He does now. The Holy Spirit is with the people of God forever! This means that no matter where you go in your Christian walk, the Spirit is always with you. But He isn’t just floating around you, He’s inside of you, dwelling within you! When we have the Comforter dwelling inside of us, our outlook on life drastically changes because we are reminded that we aren’t alone in this world that seems to becoming even more chaotic by the minute. A good sense of comfort pushes people through incredibly uncomfortable moments. I’ll give you a few examples that I think you might be familiar with, have you ever noticed how the presence of a parent or someone that you love completely changes the outlook that you might have on a situation. What do I mean? Think thunderstorms. Benji loves the rain but he isn’t crazy over storms, especially at night when he’s in bed. What does Benji do when it’s storming outside, it’s dark inside, and he’s trying to go to sleep? He comes to Lora and I and he either gets in bed with us or one of us goes into his bed with him and what happens every time that he does this? He goes right back to sleep. Why? Because he’s in the presence of those that comfort him. Did the storm change at all? No it didn’t but his outlook on it changed because he was in a place where he felt truly safe and that is where we as Christians are as we experience the never-leaving presence of the Holy Spirit. Are we taken out of the world or do the storms of life change? Not at all but our outlook has changed dramatically. One other quick example is this: how many of you like watching scary movies? Isn’t there a big difference between watching a scary movie alone in the dark and watching one with the lights on? Why is it so different? The movie is the same but we have the comfort of the lights on. Right now we are in the dark but we as Christians have the comfort of the Light of the World. The Holy Spirit truly changes us and comforts us. The Holy Spirit makes us a distinguishable people. Notice that Jesus says that the Spirit of Truth, the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. We are distinct from the rest of the world because we are marked by something that is totally foreign to the world and the world is incapable of understanding it. The next thing I want you to notice is that it is the Holy Spirit that comes to us and this is what we see in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit meets us where we are but He does not leave us as we are. For the Holy Spirit to come into our lives and not change us is a total impossibility because when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts we are not the same as we were the moment before. We are caught up in such religious affections that it would be impossible for us to stay the same! One last thing that I want you to notice about the Holy Spirit is how He comes in Acts 2. We read that the apostles heard the sound of a mighty rushing wind and that tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. This is what is known in theology as a theophany. This is a visible manifestation of God Himself. In Ezekiel 37, in the vision of the dry bones coming to life, we read that a mighty wind comes so that the dry bones would live again. Throughout the Old Testament we see the physical manifestation of God in fire: we see it in the covenant that God makes with Abraham, we see it in the burning bush, and we see it in the pillar of fire that leads the people of Israel out of Egypt. What we see here at the beginning of Acts 2 is the promise fulfilled that God Himself is coming to dwell with His people. This isn’t just a spark that will burn out. This is a fire that will continue to burn in the hearts of the People of God because God is dwelling with His people. As God Himself comes to dwell with His people, we see that He does not come to do nothing. He comes to accomplish a work both inside of us and around us and this leads us to our next point that I will run through fairly quickly and that is the outgoing work of God.
The Outgoing Work of God
The Outgoing Work of God
In verses 5-11 we noticed how at that time, there were a large number of Jewish people that had returned to Jerusalem from nations of practically the entire known world for Pentacost. The time was ripe for God to move because the whole world in a sense was present for this day. In God’s perfect sovereignty and timing, He sent the Spirit on the perfect day because it was the one time where all of these people from all of these nations would be present to hear the Gospel. The Holy Spirit not only draws people in, He sends them out and that is exactly what God was doing on the Day of Pentecost. He had all of these people from all of these places here at this time so that they might take the Gospel home with them. This is a reminder for all of us as Christians that God does not save us for us to go take a seat on the bench. No professional quarterback is content with being 4th string. He wants to go out and make a difference and if you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, you are going to want to make a difference in the world around you with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now understand that while we are not all called to preach, we are all called to point. We are all called to point to that which has made us truly different from the world, we are all called to point outwards to the God who is there and the God who loves us. We are not to keep our salvation in a box at home. When you go to school, when you go to Walmart, when you go to your grandparents house, you should be someone that causes the world to stop and think, “What does this mean?” God is always in the business of working outwards and we too are called to this work. But remember we don’t do God’s work alone. R.C. Sproul said, “The Holy Spirit is sent to empower the church to bear witness to Christ, to apply the work of Christ on the cross in terms of its redemptive significance to all who believe. The Father sends, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies the work of Christ.” With the last half of our time together, I want to look at Peter’s sermon in verses 14-36 and for time’s sake, I’ll just summarize a good portion of the elements that are present in his sermon.
God’s Promises Fulfilled
God’s Promises Fulfilled
The first element that we see in Peter’s sermon to the crowd is that it is based on Scripture and emphasizes the promises of God being fulfilled. Out of the 22 verses that make up Peter’s recorded sermon, take a guess of how many of those are references to the Old Testament? 13 of the 22 verses that comprise Peter’s sermons are references to the Old Testament. Peter is preaching an expository sermon and he is using the Old Testament to prove that Jesus is the Christ. Peter references David, the Psalms, and a prophecy by the prophet Joel. Peter tells the crowd that they are witnessing what is told by the Prophet Joel in Acts 2:16-21 and he says
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Peter is basically saying, “You shouldn’t be surprised by what you are seeing because it is exactly what God has said would happen!” The world shouldn’t be surprised when it sees the Spirit of God move within the hearts and actions of those within the Church because this is exactly what God said would happen. The Spirit of God has been poured out on all sorts of people and as we will see by the end of the book of Acts, it really is all peoples. The young and the old, male and female, slave and free, they are all taking part in what the Lord is doing. They are all active participants in the Spirit’s work. In verses 25-29, Peter references the Psalms and David and he cites Psalm 16:8-11 to testify to the Lordship and deity of Christ. Acts 2:25-28 “For David says concerning him, “ ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’” What is happening in this day of the Apostles? Guys, what is God doing here? Only that which God had promised. Anything that God has promised, He Himself will see to it that it happens and He will see to it that it will happen exactly when it needs to. Are you doubting? Are you unsure? Are you afraid? Do you know who you are in Christ Jesus and are you familiar with God’s promises? I’ll tell you this, he that is confident in the promises of God does not have to fear what may come in the future because we know that we are His people, we know that Christ has gone to prepare a place for His people, we know that one day Christ shall return, and we know that if we die before He comes, that we know exactly where and to whom we are going. God will fulfill every promise that He has ever made. Now not only is Peter’s sermon based on Scripture, it is also incredibly Christ-centric.
Peter’s Christ-Centric Sermon
Peter’s Christ-Centric Sermon
Let’s read what Peter says in Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, 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— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.” Later Peter says in Acts 2:29-36
“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are 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. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
James Montgomery Boice notes that in just these verses, Peter covers six of the primary doctrine concerning Christ. In a sense, everything that is necessary for one to hear and believe is covered in these verses. Peter references the ministry of Christ. He points to His teachings and His miracles. He emphasizes the crucifixion of Christ and that each one of us is responsible and guilty for putting the Son of God to death. He stresses that Jesus really did truly die and was buried but the Son of God did not stay buried because He was resurrected and the Apostles are eye witnesses of this. He also stresses that Christ has ascended to the right hand of God and finally that what the people are witnessing is proof of Christ’s ongoing work. The world needs people that are in love with Christ-centric sermons. I am a firm believer that every sermon that a pastor preaches should have Christ at the center of it. Far too much preaching is man-centered. You will never hear me teach a lesson that does not have Christ in it. Even from the Old Testament? Yep, even the Old Testament! How? Because all of Scriptures point to Jesus and this is God’s plan from the very beginning. Luke 24:27 “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Charles Spurgeon was asked about preaching a sermon without Christ and he said, “Leave Christ out? O my brethren, better leave the pulpit out altogether. If a man can preach one sermon without mentioning Christ’s name in it, it ought to be his last, certainly the last that any Christian ought to go to hear him preach.” He also said to a student that asked him about preaching a sermon without Christ, “No Christ in your sermon, sir? Then go home, and never preach again until you have something worth preaching.” The world does not need greater pep talks. You guys don’t need a pat on the back and to be told that your crap doesn’t stink. You need Christ front and centered. You need Christ at the forefront of your minds. You need a clearer view of Christ and a more accurate perception of yourself. You will never outgrow the basics of Christianity. You should never tire of hearing the life, death, and resurrection of Christ preached because that is the greatest balm for your soul. It is the life giving message that doesn’t just give life once and leave, it continues to give life and it is this message that leads to eternal life.
The Demand for a Response
The Demand for a Response
Let’s look at one last thing together and that is the response to Peter’s message. We read in Acts 2:36-41 “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” I want to point out 2 things quickly about this Gospel message and it isn’t necessarily just this message that Peter gives, it applies to all Gospel messages. The first thing that I want to point out about the Gospel message is that it is profoundly personal.
A message that is profoundly personal
Let me quickly point out how in 2 ways: Notice that Peter says in verse 36, “Know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” While there were likely relatively few people in Jerusalem the day that Christ was crucified, Peter says that each and every one of them was personally responsible for crucifying Christ. While they may not have physically nailed the stakes into His hands, they all had a role to play in His crucifixion. John Piper said, “The Jewish rulers rejected this role of God in Jesus’ life. They called him a blasphemer. Therefore, if a person rejects the true role of God in the life of Jesus, that person votes for the charge of blasphemy. And to cast your vote on the side of blasphemy—to reject God’s endorsement of Jesus—is to say in your heart, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” There is not a single person on this planet that is not directly responsible for the death of Jesus. The second way that the Gospel message is personal is that while it is offered on a global scale, each one must personally respond to it. I cannot save you for you. Your parents cannot save you for you and you cannot save your friends. Your family’s faith is not applied automatically to you. In order for any one to be saved, they must personally be born again. You must have the Holy Spirit fall upon you and make you totally new, you must each respond in faith and this is how Peter answers the question of the onlookers. Acts 2:38 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” I think that in the grand scheme of things, we all need to personalize the Gospel message to ourselves. We shouldn’t ask if the world has been born again until we first answer whether or not you and I have been born again. Have you been born again? This goes into one final thing about the Gospel message: it is a message that demands a response.
A message that demands a response
The Gospel message that Peter gives allows no wiggle room for the hearer. Verse 37 says that when the crowd heard this they were cut to the heart and they asked the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” True Gospel preaching always requires a response. When man is confronted with the living God and has the truth of the Gospel given to them, man must have a response. So, I would ask you, how have you responded to the truths of the Gospel? Have you heard the message of the cross and has it cut you to your very heart? Have you asked the same question as this crowd because you have each played a role in the death of the Son of God and each one of you must respond to it. You can either leave it as it is and live a life of sin and self or you can have your heart totally made new by faith in the risen Son of God. The Gospel message is a personal message that demands a response and when you respond to that message in faith, it will totally change you to the core and your life that you once lived will not be the life that you live anymore because you will have the Spirit of the Living God inside you. I ask each of you today to respond in someway to what we have gone over and if you need to talk to me or want to know more about what a response looks like or what it could like to others in your life that you want to see come to faith in Christ, I am of course available after we sing this next song. Let’s pray.