Proclaiming good news in our community Pt. 3

Fallen Condition Focus= Despite all of our knowledge and all the things pointing towards Jesus, we often look away from Him or turn on Him because we would prefer another way because of our dead or hard hearts.

Introduction

Good morning LaFayette Baptist Family. It is so good to be here with you all today and celebrate this Lord’s day with you all, singing hymns to Him, learning of Him, and reading His Word, and praying together. Our passage today will be from Acts 2, Acts 2:29-36 and we will go to the end of the chapter, please go ahead, and turn there in your bible’s and following along as we go through the message. In a few moments it will be on the screen for us to read from the screen together as well.

While you are turning to that place in your bible’s, I want to share with you a study by Dr. Vitelli Romeo that he had published in Psychology today in 2010, so needless to say because this was nearly 13 years ago, I expect the numbers have only gotten worse because of our increased access to screens and technology. In it, he sought to discover how much television, commercials and adds our children to take in. He found that each American Child takes in around 4.5 hours each day of television, which has probably changed and expanded today to computers, tablets, and phones. It also reported that children are likely to have watched over 350,000 commercials by the time they graduate high school. The article ended with this quote, “Mental health professionals also need to warn parents about the potentially harmful effects that inappropriate content, whether through programs or commercials, can have on younger children. Despite a tendency in many parents to use television as a “babysitter,” unsupervised television watching can be more damaging to young children than they realize.” I would assert that anything that doesn’t point towards Jesus is most likely hurtful or harmful content.

So, with 350,000 commercials and something of at least 24,300 hours (probably more now, with regards to all screens) of taking in the TV before high school graduation; How many hours do you think these children got to speak with their parents or trusted adults about God? Very little. In fact, if an American family averaged one hour a week of talking, sharing, and teaching about God with our children, this would probably put that family in the top tier of 676 hours before high school. Now, I’m not making any accusations against anyone here right now, but I have to say, no wonder. No wonder by in large the American church is shrinking, because by in large we do not go and share or proclaim the Good news in our closest communities (our families and close friends). I know that is a big downer, but all that to say, it is not to late. If you are hearing my words today, it’s not to late for you to share and proclaim the good news in your community and God is beckoning you and empowering you on! So, let’s look a few at reasons why we should do this in today text and message.

Scripture

If you would all please rise for the reading of God’s Word today. The words to the scripture will be on the screen, please read along with me as we are reading. When I am done I will say “this is The Word of The Lord” if you will all please respond with “Thanks be to God.” First, let’s pray.

Father God, we thank You for this time and this place where we get to spend time in worship of You and reading Your word together. Father, we are just people, and I am just man. On my own and without You, their is no Word of Truth that I can utter. Only with You and empowered by You am I in the least bit able. Father, during this sermon today may my and our hearts be surrendered completely over to You. May we see and understand and apply whatever it is You are telling us about Yourself today. Help us to put any distractions away that would keep us from doing so. Then, take this message and burden our hearts with us and transform us Father. Move and transform us to not only be better pursuers of You, but also to spread your Good news that You would be glorified in our community, those closest to us. We love You Father and it’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and Precious Name that I pray, Amen. 29 “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. 30 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, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 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. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,35 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Context

We continue this week in our third installment of a mini-series within a series through the book acts. At this point, we are still in Peter’s sermon on the day the Pentecost and we are nearing the very end of it. Here we see that Peter, the apostles, and the other disciples were in Jerusalem as they were commanded by Christ (to wait and remain there until they were given power from on high, which we know was the gift of the Holy Spirit and a gift that they had just received). The Holy Spirit then moved them to go out together and share the mighty works of God with others (what we would call give testimonies and praise) in languages that the speakers did not know, but the audiences did hear and understand (as those languages were their own native languages). This scene would cause some to look on in wonder and some to mock what was happening. This sermon of Peter’s happens to this mixed crowd.

You will recall in last weeks sermon (which was the second part of Peter’s Sermon) we saw the apostle share from a Psalm of David, specifically Psalm 16 and interpreted and applied it to the situation for the audience. For us, we saw 4 things to keep before us when we go and proclaim good news in our community. These were first, to Keep Jesus as the main focus, that all other wants and desires are unimportant and should never motivate us into action over the Glory of Jesus. The second was to keep God’s plan in your mind, that from the beginning of the fall of mankind, God was working to provide for the redemption people from Sin who would turn to Him and this has been fulfilled through Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross. The third was to Keep Jesus always before you; nothing else matters except the pursuit of Him and sharing Him with others. The last idea was that we are to Keep God’s presence as your joy, the only real and lasting Joy can never be found or obtained by the things that the world has to offer, it can only be found in relationship with God. So, those were last week’s points. This week, we will look at reasons why to proclaim the good news in your community and those closest to you.

Message

This brings us to our first point, the first reason why we proclaim the good news is: Jesus is Alive

29 “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. 30 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, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

Peter continues addressing crowd, speaking to them about someone that they would have known very well. This of course was the patriarch, David; the great king of Israel. David’s life and reign as king would have been some 1000 years before the original audience’s time. However, his name, his reign, his person, his deeds were immortalized in their culture. Children would have grown up hearing the great and not so great things that King David did. His life though, wasn’t just one of fantasy, they knew, we know, and history agrees that King David was real. In fact, for them they new exactly where his tomb was and could point to places that David had lived and even have well documented genealogies that could identify his descendants. A similar figure for us today, would be George Washington. Think about it, everyone knows who we has and what he did. We can visit his home and farm today. We even have stories that we tell children about him that are important for children learning lessons, such as George Washing chopping down his parents’ cherry tree. Now, I’m not wanting to makebiblical connections between the two, but what I want us to understand is that king David was an important figure not just in the minds of individuals, but of the entire Jewish society as a whole.

Peter also explains that David, on top of being king of Israel, was also a prophet, meaning that he was a human that God had chosen to speak through. This was perhaps David’s greatest honor in life, he knew from God that throne of his kingdom would pass to one of descendants and greater yet the world would be saved by one (Jesus), and that the Christ would not be given over to death and his flesh would see corruption. This Prophet-King himself was and is dead, was buried, and they knew where to go to find his remains. David’s flesh saw corruption. The proof was there for them, David was…… but now he is gone.

The same cannot be said of Jesus. Jesus is not dead, he IS ALIVE! Yes Jesus did die, but as we spoke about last week, it is not possible for death to keep it’s wanting hands upon Him. Why? Because Jesus is God, the second person of the trinity. He Himself is the God and the master of both life and death. Peter, the disciples, and the apostles already knew this (they saw Jesus rise from His grave 3 days after his death and saw Him ascend to Heaven) now it is time for others to know. What’s more, one the apostles, standing with Peter during this sermon would get to see Jesus again while still alive. We read this account in Revelation 1, where the Apostle John shares that, “17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. This is one reason why we share Jesus with others because we do not want to see others to suffer a fate that is much worse than death, that is death in sin. This death means that a person is doomed to spend eternity in hell. This is true, and yes it is scary. Now, not all will receive the free gift of life. None-the-less, Jesus makes it clear that it is our role as His followers to share what gift we do have with others, this is the gift of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ that by accepting His sacrificial death on the cross you can be saved from sin. Because Jesus is Alive, we proclaim the good news.

Our second point, the second reason we proclaim the good news is :Jesus is Exalted

32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 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.

Peter continues, and begins making his argument very clear. The theologian Howard says of it that, “ The conclusion of the immediate argument is now drawn. What was prophesied has been fulfilled in this Jesus. The Old Testament prophesied that the Messiah would rise from the dead. Jesus has risen from the dead (verse 24), and therefore it followed that he must be the prophesied Messiah; for it can be assumed that nobody else was expected to rise from the dead in advance of the general resurrection. Peter’s argument obviously does not mean that Jesus becameMessiah by being raised from the dead, but rather that since the Messiah must rise from the dead, and since Jesus rose from the dead, it follows that Jesus was already the Messiah during his earthly life.”[1]To put it simply, it was clear that Jesus was the messiah, they all saw it. His resurrection and the fact that His body is no longer found are the hard-hitting proof of the fact. So, now Jesus is exalted at the right of the Father…. What does Exalted mean? It means He is raised up, He was and remains at a place of prominence and importance with God the Father. In turn, God the Son (Jesus) sent another person of God, God the Holy Spirit who has been poured out (and this is what the audience was seeing) and is something we get to enjoy today, the pouring of the empowering Holy Spirit on all believers in Jesus Christ. So, as it goes, Our life endeavor should be to exalt or making Jesus of the most importance in every part of our life. Part of this, is going and sharing Him with others, that too may exalt Him in their lives. Why? Because it is right and proper and the and an absolute truth, that Jesus is exalted.

The next reason we proclaim the good news is because: Jesus is Lord

34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand,

Oh man, this a part of scripture that I remember staring at for hours as a new believer at the age of 23 or 24 years old and being absolutely stumped by it. Remember, this portion of scripture is referenced in multiple places in The Bible. The first time we see it for the first time in a Psalm of David in Psalm 110. We also see Jesus quote it in several of the Gospels as well, and once again we find it in Peter’s sermon.

Let me break this down for you. The word in the original languages for Lord here, is the same base word, which means God or supreme authority. So, a good JSV (Jacob standard version of this sentence would be (God said God (Jesus) or God said to Jesus, Sit at my right hand. I’m sure scholars could say to that statement, yes but…. However that kind of study isn’t super useful to help us get a base understanding of what is being said here.

What’s important here, is that the words all point towards the Lordship of Christ. That has great power and authority as the second person of the trinity. God declared Jesus’ Lordship, and this was and remains true for all people today. Many other things, all of which are false, vie for the lordships of our lives and our worlds. Most of them are subtle that we would never notice them. Not all of them are clear and overt, such as dancing as Satan on national television, yes those are their and we need to watch out for them, but equally we must watch out for the subtle. The little jab, the little poke that says in a joking manner that Jesus isn’t Lord, the thing that vies so much for your attention, that it often takes preference over alone time with God and fulfilling the great commandments (to love God and love people) and the great commission (to go and make disciples) throughout our lives. These things are secretly hidden everywhere in every person in the sanctuary’s today.

Don’t be fooled, Satan is trying to make you stumble, and He is always trying to deceive you. If you don’t see what it is, odds are you are so deep in the Lordship of whatever that sin may be, that you it has blinded you. We all do this, myself included. Don’t think this is true? Flip through your Bible, and you will notice a great many of the Biblical book authors confessing that they had sin deceive them or they warned us to not be deceived. This is why it is so important to take a look at ourselves, think about what it may be, have a friend you can trust who will share it with you when you are ready to ask, and turn towards the Lordship of Jesus in repentance. Doing those things, shows that you not only walk the walk, but you talk the talk. Submitting to the Lordship of Jesus is not a one-time thing, it is a lifetime endeavor as we journey on together as a church body on this journey through life to become more like Jesus, which is called sanctification. For ourselves and others to do this, to rightly honor the Lord Jesus, we must go out and share the good news of Jesus not just with others but also with ourselves. So, the lordship of Jesus is a reason why we proclaim the good news.

Let’s move on, Another reason why we proclaim the good news is because Jesus is Christ

36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Plain as day, Peter says it right here. That we know for certain that God has made him (Jesus) both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, today we often may use or think of these titles of Lord and Christ as interchangeable or the same. This is a natural place to come towards, as both of these titles rightly belong to the same person, Jesus. Now, we have already talked about the word Lord, let’s look at the word Christ. To the Jewish people, this would have been a title that was only given to God’s Holy One, who was set apart for His service in the work of redemption from sin. The messiah, the long awaited servant, The Son of God; the perfect lamb that would be led to the slaughter. Interestingly enough, this would have been a word that all Jewish people were waiting for in anticipation; an anticipation that was to far exceed that of a child when the calendar changes from November to December. To the gentiles though, it would not have been a term or idea that were familiar with, as such the word “Lord” would have much effect. Well, Jesus was the savior of both Jew and Gentile as such He is both Lord and Christ.

Then, Peter says something explosive. He says, this Jesus whom. You. crucified. Wow. The shock of that explosion is still with us today. It was true for them both literally and figuratively, for us is the same. Let’s be real for a moment…. Let’s add the word “I” into their and say it all out loud. This Jesus whom I crucified. Say it with me, This Jesus whom I crucified………. Let that sink in, yes you, me I, we are part of the reason why Jesus was crucified. Non the less, even though so often we leave the God we love, God provided the way that we might be redeemed through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. This is another reason why we go and share the good news to those around us, because Jesus is the Christ and there is no other way and no other truth worth focusing on.

Conclusion

Beloved, I urge you to meditate on and understand these reasons why we go and proclaim the good news in our community that others may be saved. The first reason is that Jesus is Alive, death and the power of sin have no hold on Him because He has overcome and mastered them. The second reason is that Jesus is Exalted as He should be as both Lord and Christ, the third and fourth reasons. Through Him and because of Him we are saved from Sin and through Him and because of Him others are saved as well, our role in God’s plan is to go and share the good news other. God does the rest.

So, what is this good news. It is this, and believer and non believer alike, you are all invited to respond to it and what it means your life today. There is a perfect creator God, who created all things and all them were good. However, he gave to man the ability to choose, and at which man chose to rebel against God and desire to be link Him, which is not possible because we are finite beings. Despite this, rebellion which we call sin, God loved and loves us so much that He provided the way for us to be forgiven of this rebellion once and for all. This was through His own sacrifice, the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. A compassionate and loving gift, that no other could ever match. When we accept this free gift from God, we become one of God’s children are not only forgiven of our sin and made whole before Him and empowered to remove what sins linger in our lives, we also get to experience Him in joy now and forever more. No longer will you be an enemy of His, but a beloved child. So, with that knowledge you can no longer plead ignorance. Turn to Him today.

Let’s conclude, during our last song together, if you need prayer or have questions, or want to talk more about this, please come forward, I would love to speak with you. Brothers and sisters, I love you all, let’s pray. Father God, we thank You this day for this message. May it refine and purify us as only Your Word can do. Help us to understand and apply everything that You are showing us in our lives. Help us Go out and share You with others, that You may be glorified not just in our hearts, but also in the Hearts of others. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and Precious name that I pray, Amen.

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[1]Marshall, I. Howard. Acts: An Introduction and Commentary. InterVarsity Press, 1980, p. 82.