The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached

Introduction:

I think some of the greatest times that we can see God move in our lives is when we are rely on the spontaneous moving of the Lord.

2 Weeks ago, I had the Lord do something in me that I have never really done before.

I had my sermon done and was here at the church praying when the Lord began to move on my heart to preach a different message.

I am convinced that all of my sermons are from the Lord by having this confirmed through many of you at times.

Dave comes up to me many times after service to say, “You preached our prayer meeting.”

I have had many of you at different times come to me and say things like, “That was what the Lord has been speaking to me, or that was my devotion this week.”

I don’t always understand it, but God puts things on my heart and I preach it.

2 weeks ago, God changed what I preached on Saturday night and I preached it on Sunday morning.

I believe that sermon was birthed from my time of prayer Saturday night and it felt good to release that over the church.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in the details of things, which are not bad, and we loose focus on relying on the Holy Spirit in the moment.

I know Pastors that have a preaching calendar and have sermons mapped out for 6 months or even a year out.

That is okay, but that is not me.

I like to try to sense where we are at as a church during that specific time and preach into that.

It’s okay to be prepared, but we also should be open to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through us.

Today I have titled my message “The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached.”

No, I am not prideful.

I have had some of you at times tell me that you appreciate the fact that I preach my own sermons.

I don’t preach other people’s sermons but preach what the Holy Spirit gives me.

Today though, I am going to preach someone else’s sermon.

I believe that, other than Jesus’ teachings, this is the best sermon ever preached.

Open your Bibles with me to Acts 2:14-21

Acts 2:14–21 NIV

14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

Point 1: We need to keep the Lord our number 1 priority in our life and church.

There are many great things about this sermon that Peter preaches.

What I call the “Greatest sermon ever preached.”

One on the best things about this is verse 14 that says, “Then Peter stood up and addressed the crowd.”

We know that Jesus called Peter to follow Him and leave his life of fishing behind.

I love to fish so I can relate to the struggle there.

Peter probably was not the smartest person that Jesus could have picked, but instead He picked to use this strong, burly guy that caught fish for a living.

He was not a Bible scholar or teacher in a synagogue, but a fisherman.

How many of you would say Amen to the fact that God uses ordinary people?

Let’s look at a few of Peter’s actions before Pentecost that would be proof that something supernatural had happened to him.

Peter tried to rebuke Jesus for wanting to go to Jerusalem to be crucified.

Jesus then rebuked Peter by saying, “Get behind me Satan.”

Don’t tell me that Christians cannot be oppressed by demons.

Don’t tell me that we cannot open our lives up for Satan to move in.

We need to guard our lives and family especially in the world we live in today.

Peter walked on the water to Jesus but then lost faith and began to sink.

Big, bad Peter was not even brave enough to say that he was a follower of Jesus when things got hard.

We know 2 of the 3 times he denied being with Jesus was to young girls.

He was not even bold enough to say that he was with Jesus to small girls.

If we fast forward a little over a month after he denies Jesus, we now read of Peter standing up and preaching to thousands of people in Jerusalem that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah and is even greater that King David.

I think we need to look at what caused this timid man to become so bold.

Peter is standing with the other believers hearing Jesus command them to not leave Jerusalem until they recieved power from Heaven to be His witnesses all over the world.

Not knowing exactly what Jesus meant by this, how this would, look, what would happen, or how long it would take, they obeyed Jesus and locked their selves away in an upper room in Jerusalem and began to pray.

After about 10 days of prayer everything changed.

The Holy Spirit came down and filled everyone of those 120 believers who were in prayer.

There were many people gathered in Jerusalem who traveled there from many different places to celebrate Pentecost.

Those in the streets heard this sound of people speaking in other tongues and were amazed.

Others questioned what was happening and made fun of them saying that maybe they were drunk.

Peter, without hesitating, stands up and begins to quiet the critics.

Without preparing what to say or how to say it, Peter stands up and preaches a sermon under the power of the Holy Spirit and 3,000 people get saved.

The difference between the Peter of a month ago and the Peter in Acts 2 was the Holy Spirit.

Peter, at this time was a manifestation of the Spirit’s work.

The Holy Spirit falls, fills up those believers, and that power is almost instantly put on display as Peter preaches to the crowd.

Another example:

It’s important to remember that Peter was an ordinary guy that decided to give his life to follow Jesus.

He didn’t just say yes to attending ritual services regularly or fulfilling all the traditions, but he said yes to a completely different way of life that would eventually lead to his death.

Do you remember the story I shared a few months ago about the man that died in Ecuador while on a Missions trip?

His wife, when asked how she was dealing with his death at the hands of that tribe in the jungles of Ecuador, she said, “That wasn’t when he died. He died years ago when he got on his knees and surrendered his life to the Lord.

I’m sure Peter would say the same thing.

“I didn’t die that day at the hand of sinners when they hung me upside down. I died that day when I accepted the call to follow Jesus. What really marked me was that day in that upper room when I was changed forever.”

You talk about never backsliding after that because what is there to go back to.

Maybe we see so many people backslide because they never truly have a sincere, pure encounter with the Lord.

Peter said yes to 10 days of prayer that changed the course of history forever.

Peter’s boldness and the anointing that was on him was a result of desperately going after God.

There is that word again “desperation”.

We need to have desperation if we believe He is the only answer for our marriage, kids, church, community, country, or world.

Point 2: We need to preach the Word.

Peter does not try to reconcile with those who were criticizing what was happening.

What he does is preach the Word of God and 3,000 people are saved.

Acts 2:37 says that when the people heard Peter’s sermon they were cut to the heart.

Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

When the word of God is preached lives are changed.

Something happens in the spirit realm that causes the demonic to flee and the kingdom of God to advance.

The Bible tells us that truth is what sets us free.

We have too many churches where people gather together to hear what their itching ears want to hear.

Those places are full of people that have no power to accomplish anything for the Kingdom and many people are held captive by many things.

I want to be part of a church where truth is preached because that is what sets us free.

I want to be at a place where sermons are preached that stretch me, make me feel uncomfortable, and steps on toes at times because the ENTIRE truth is what sets men free!!!!!!

Peter doesn’t try to talk with these people nicely.

“You know brothers, please be nicer to us. You really are upsetting our feelings by saying we may be drunk. We are not really sure what happened but it was good. Let us walk you through what happened and you come up with your own conclusion.”

No, Peter stood up boldly and said, “Listen carefully to what I am about to say. What you hear is not drunk men but a fulfillment of the prophet Joel.”

“I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.”

This time of prayer and indwelling of the Holy Spirit empowered Peter to boldly fulfill God’s calling on his life.

I wonder how this would have been different if Peter would have tried this without the Holy Spirit.

MY prayer every Sunday before I come up to preach is that the Holy Spirit will anoint me and empower me to preach His Word boldly.

Have you ever had an encounter with the Lord, either in a service or home in your prayer closet, where you just felt a boldness rise up in you where you feel like you could just do anything for the Lord?

Peter just had this amazing encounter with the Lord and steps out to some people criticizing what had happened.

I have had times when something came up where my first reaction was to question my ability or to be overcome with fear.

After this encounter with the Lord I truly believe that anyone of us in this room would be saying, “LET ME DO IT. I’LL TELL THEM EXACTLY WHAT THIS IS.

Not a single one of us would be cowarding back but chomping at the bit wanting to boldly proclaim that God had just touched us all.

I want to tell you today that this encounter with the Lord is available to everyone of us now.

Don’t try to do this thing on your own, but seek FIRST the Kingdom and His righteousness.

You put God first in this and He will empower you and give you the boldness to do it.

I have a great friend that I really respect in the ministry that I have had share here before.

He was asked a few weeks ago to pray the opening prayer on the Senate floor in Harrisburg to begin their session.

I asked him if he was nervous and he said he felt a bunch of emotions that day.

We began to talk about how we both have noticed that when we have felt the most nervous or anxious with something like this it almost seems like the Holy Spirit takes over the most.

I think I read somewhere that says not to worry about what we will say at these times because the Holy Spirit will give us the words to say.

Listen to this, “We will never experience this to be true if we never step out of our comfort zone to do it.

The Lord has a plan and He wants to use everyone of us to accomplish it.

Conclusion:

Peter preached “The greatest sermon ever preached” where 3,000 people were saved.

He didn’t do that because he was bold by nature or naturally smart, but he did this because he recieved the Holy Spirit’s power.

This is available to any follower of Jesus who asks Him.

I want to end with this:

God wants you to live your life knowing that you are representing Him to a lost and dying world.

You are an Ambassador of Christ and that Letter of Recommendation that people constantly read and look at to see something different than what they have.

The world is looking for more and we have it.