3.2.22a 4.23.2023 Your Promise, My Promise, Our Promise Little Grove Christian Church

Start:

Entice: I am preaching from Acts this month. I have found that 40 years of preaching from Acts creates a whole lot of sermons. The temptation is to just load up with something from the past and no fresh exegesis or the hard work of thinking through the text. This is the second week in a row I’ve had the chance to preach an extra sermon, so I want to thank Lance, and my friend Dustin for giving me extra licks this month.

Lance provided a theme, which while I did not follow explicitly, did guide my thinking about this evening’s message, which is a sub set of what I preached this morning.

Let’s start here...

Acts 2:39 ESV

39 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.”

Engage: For more than 2000 years the continuity of the Church is based upon the shared promise Peter preached about, and that Luke recorded.

The understanding of this promise has been the fruitful fountain of piles of books and countless sermons. The consideration of this promise has brought the powerful to their knees and raised the impoverished from theirs. Investing in this promise has challenged and changed the world.

This promise is yours,

this promise is mine,

this promise is ours.

Though we all know what this promise is and though it is the basis for every sermon preached and lesson taught we don’t always specify exactly what this promise actually is or all that it entails.

Expand: One of the reasons is that we suspect that the answers we have always heard and maybe what we’ve said ourselves is not entirely correct. We read the text through our own assumptions rather than Gods. The promise is the answer to our prayers and the framework for our practice. His promise gives proper perspective …

Excite: For all who believe, all who respond in faith.

Explore:

The promise of God for each and all of us, is fully realized in Jesus.

Expand: This promise provides a framework for Kingdom living.

Body of Sermon: It is

1 A Framework for understanding scripture.

Acts 2:14–31 ESV

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: 17 “ ‘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; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ 22 “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— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 25 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; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; my flesh also will dwell in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 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.

That’s a big chunk of text. I needed to read it all to drive home the point. Peter is not just teaching us that we should believe what the Bible says but HOW we should read and understand it. The promise of God, realized in Jesus is the proper framework for understanding the OT and the rest of the NT.

1.1 This is that.

The passage from Joel.

1.2 This is who.

Jesus the Messiah not David the Patriarch/King.

1.3 This is why.

David was a prophet…

1.4 This is how.

The resurrection is the pinnacle of God’s redemptive purpose in Jesus.

This promise is yours; this promise is mine; this promise is ours.

Next, we see that the promise provides

2 A Framework for salvation.

Acts 2:32–38 ESV

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.” 37 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?” 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.

Salvation flows from the

2.1 Events of the Passion.

The passion is necessary considering the

2.2 Extent of the Fall.

Obedience to the complete work of Christ is the

2.3 Essence of reconciliation.

This promise is yours; this promise is mine; this promise is ours..

Finally, we see that the promise provides

3 A Framework for Stability.

Acts 2:39–47 ESV

39 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.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. 42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

The Church embodies the promise. The Church enflocks the promise (I made that one up). The Church is the vine. The Church makes the promise visible and present before the unbelieving world.

He is present through our

3.1 Worship.

He is present through our

3.2 Fellowship.

He is present we we take

3.3 Ownership

Of the mission of the Church. In this sense “owning it” means being a responsible steward in our context.

They didn’t practice an ancient form of communism, they demonstrated an ancient form of “pushing all your chips into the middle.”

they had skin in the game.

Shut Down

The outcome of this framework? Impact in the community and ongoing divine growth.

Most of things the Church needs we have had in the past. And most of the things we do to try and get them are the wrong things. Is it because we have stopped believing the promise? Do we really think that worldly

supplements to the promise have anything to offer? Jerusalem eventually turned on the earliest Church because the found out that the promise was not temporary, that it was uncompromising. When faith is life and death, we don’t have time to piddle around the margins. It’s all the promise of God…Or nothing.

We don’t ask God nearly enough…”What should we do?” If we did we would do a lot more of what we read here and a lot less of what we see everywhere else.