3.2.20 4.14.2024 Acts 2.14-36 Witness to What?

Start:

Entice: Pentecost began as a harvest festival. By the time of Jesus, it was evolving towards a celebration of the giving of the Torah.

After the ascension, Pentecost becomes, for the Church, the day of a new foundation, a new focus, a new covenant. It is the day upon which the Holy Spirit comes as a promise upon the redeemed equipping us for ministry and empowering our Gospel.

Equipping

Empowering

The ultimate power of God is not to be found in the miracles that draw attention to the messengers but the saving message they actually preach. This is one of the signal misunderstandings of movements or groups that go beyond what the NT teaches about the miraculous.

The point was never the signs and wonders.

The central issue was the saving message of Jesus, the risen savior.

We need to become very good at sharing that message, at telling the Jesus story to the best of our ability.

Engage: Last week we focused quite a bit on how His story is completed by our history. This week need to consider how His story completes the Biblical story. I admit to a bit of a fixation on our text.

My first sermon as your preacher on

May 1, 2016

was from this text. I preached it again in

2017,

2019,

2020,

2023,

and now

2024.

This is an important text. The different trajectories we can take in applying this text testify to that importance as well as its depth.

This year our theme is certainty, which boils down to certainty about our message.

Expand: If we want to be certain of our message. If we want to boldly appeal to outsiders and effectively equip insiders, we need to know the message. We need to be able to answer the question “witness to what?” That question first surfaces in Acts 2, in Peter’s inaugural sermon on the day of Pentecost.

Explore:

A confident witness anchors her or his testimony to Jesus’ story.

Expand: His story fulfills the Biblical story. This first time it was preached clarified the biblical connection of our enduring testimony.

Body of Sermon: Connection #1, The first time the Gospel was preached we find

1 Biblical Continuity.

Acts 2:14–28 (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.’

Continuity means reading and applying scripture the way the Apostles did. In this passage it begins with following Peter’s logic that

1.1 This is that.

1.1.1 Jesus provides a model for the OT in which His atoning work and creation of His body, the Church, is the culmination of God’s work.

1.1.2 So, when Peter says, “this is that…”or “this event fulfills Joel’s prophecy,” He is not only proclaiming a particular truth he’s also reinforcing the Biblical model of interpretation.

1.1.3 God’s concept of Salvation history, divides history into two parts. Everything before the Cross and empty tomb and everything after. Joel’s prophecy was about this transition from the former days to the latter days. The last days began at Pentecost and continue until Jesus comes again.

Biblical continuity is not only textual but personal. Peter uses more scripture to remind us that

1.2 He is Him.

So, I have spoken with mangled, fractured grammar twice now. I know it and had to wrestle with the software to prevent it from correcting me. These two ungrammatical phrases summarize correctly what the text teaches, what I want to say. Sometimes we break grammatical rules to make bigger points. This is that relates Jesus to God’s bigger work. He is Him declares that He is the awaited Messiah.

Peter’s testimony to Jesus as the Christ is that he

1.2.1 Bears witness to the full saving work of Jesus.

And that testimony

1.2.2 Bears witness to the inspired foresight of David.

Continuity is good. Consistency is good. The next connecting step is

2 Biblical Confidence.

Acts 2:29–35 ESV

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.” ’

We are confident because the resurrection

2.1 Proves God’s Point.

The work of Christ is complete in atonement, resurrection, and ascension.

Furthermore, we are confident because the resurrection

2.2 Provides God’s Spirit.

Last of all when the word is faithfully preached this continuity and confidence results in

3 Biblical Confirmation.

Acts 2:36–38 ESV

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.

Confirmation of God’s work in Christ culminates in the process of conversion.

When the gospel is preached it is confirmed by listeners accepting

3.1 Responsibility.

When people acknowledge their responsibility for the sin that nailed Jesus to the cross the first faithful step is

3.2 Regret.

Real regret asks, “what must I do” and the next step is

3.3 Repentance

Repentant sinners are promised

3.4 Regeneration.

Baptism is birth and death and the point at which the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us .

Shut Down

The story of Jesus is our story. We bear witness to Him. This is a Biblically driven process.

It Confirms God’s work in Jesus and in His Church.

This story gives us confidence that the point God made then, He still makes today—that Christ’s complete work still saves completely.

And this story reminds us of the continuity of the New Covenant to the Old, and the fulfillment of all the promises of the Hebrew Bible in Jesus.

We need to know the story of Jesus to the best of our ability. And we need to know how His story fulfills salvation history completing God’s plan. Then we are in the position to confidently bear witness to all that God has done and is doing in Jesus Christ our Lord.

You need to be a part of this band of witnesses.

You need to add your voice to ours.

This is the time to be a faithful witness to a fallen culture.