ALL IN - The First Converts
All In • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Homesick for a land I’ve never been to, looking for a city whose builder and maker is God…
Thankful to live in the US, but my allegiance is FIRST with a kingdom not of this world…
I’ll do all I can to spread the influence of Jesus far enough and fast enough to make a difference, but here’s what I know…
Assyria fell… Babylon fell… Rome fell… and one of these days all the countries of the world will bow to a kingdom led by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords…
I pray for our leaders on a regular basis, but the bible says it’s God who sets up kings and tears them down again…
There may be a day when this country goes the way of Babylon and Rome, but my citizenship is in a kingdom whose economy is never threatened, whose borders are never penetrated, whose ruler needs no politics…
A place where the press and news media have no influence… There is neither democrat nor republican…
The king is not swayed by influential men, nor corrupted by money… In fact, the economy is so good in this kingdom they build gates with pearl and pave streets with gold…
This kingdom has no white house, no senate, no house of representatives…
The King of this great kingdom holds all power in His hand. He will never grow tired or weary… No matter how many international trips he takes…
He never sleeps nor slumbers… His eye is always on you and I, watching out for our best interest.
He never loses control and says something stupid… He’ll never get too old… You can’t impeach Him and He’s not going to resign…
He needs no supreme court, because He is the ultimate standard of all that is good.
Yes, I’m thankful to be a citizen of the United States, but even more importantly, my priority is placed on my citizenship to the Kingdom of God!
Everything else, including my patriotism for this nation must come secondary to my loyalty to Jesus and His kingdom.
I’ve never been this homesick!
We fly the American Flag on the pole out front… We display these decorative flags when the occasion warrants in here… I stand when the national anthem is played… BUT let me be the first to tell you, my citizenship to this country is subservient to my citizenship in the Kingdom of God…
Make no mistake, as proud as I am of this country, the minute their values do not align and a choice is to be made, there will be no question, no hesitation, and no regret…
CHOOSE YE THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE, BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!
My loyalty is with Heaven. My allegiance is with the Almighty. And my declaration is that Jesus is King!
One of these days, the bible declares nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, there will be wars and rumors of wars, and there will come a day when we will all have to choose where we stand…
When that day comes, you better know friend, we will stand with the God of the bible!
I believe, there is a time coming when the kingdom we are looking for will come down and rest as a new heavens and a new earth, where there is no longer any darkness or night, but the light of the world sits on the throne in Jerusalem…
See I believe, the church will go out in the same manner as she came in, raging as a wildfire that spreads with veracity.
And I for one don’t want to be lagging behind or just catching up! I want to be at the forefront of what God is doing on the earth…
***I’m a soldier in the army of the Lord***
I’ve never been more homesick!
That’s why we are doing this ALL IN series, because I believe if we are to a part of the church, we must know what it is supposed to look like!
The church is a physical representation of the government of heaven being manifest on the earth… The message we preach is the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!
We are ambassadors of Christ, his representatives to this foreign place we call the earth, spreading the message of hope in a lost and dying world.
I can tell you this, over the centuries since the ascension of Christ, the church has gone through many transitions, many transformations, but I feel a sense that there is a return to an understanding of what God established in the first century under the leadership of the apostles…
Over the previous weeks, we have looked over the first couple chapters of the book of Acts.
We talked about the requirement of Jesus that they first receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit before they begin the task of establishing the church…
We talked about the incredible events of that day of Pentecost… We covered Peter’s sermon and established that Jesus must be both Lord and Christ…
Now we will see the results of all this that made up the “Grand Opening” of the church…
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
They were pierced to the heart.. that literally means “wounded in their conscience.”
Jesus said:
44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.
I can get up here and talk until I’m blue in the face… We can have all the right strategies, do all the right outreaches, create the right discipleship pipeline, but without God’s drawing, it all amounts to nothing!
We need God to draw the people we are reaching out to.. The presupposition here is that we are reaching out so that when God draws them, we are already there…
Having heard Peter’s sermon, they were pierced to the heart… “What shall we do?”
This is the question asked so many times of Jesus during His ministry… The crowds, the tax collectors, and even the soldiers asked, “what shall we do?”
Now the ministry of Jesus has been extended to those who would now be called the Apostles through the mouth of Peter and they are asked, “What shall we do!?”
Friend, if nothing else, we should have an answer ready for the culture surrounding us when they look into the sermon of our lives and ask, “What shall we do!?”
The answer is not to go on like you were because we love you like you are…
The answer is not you were born like this, so it’s okay…
The answer is not, everyone is going to make it…
The answer is not a universalist false hope with a watered down gospel….
The answer is not behavior modification or legalism…
The answer is not religion, ritual, or routine…
The answer is only found in the power found in the shed blood of Jesus Christ in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us… …
The answer is as Peter states,
38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
REPENT!
Repent and be baptized…
Unfortunately, our culture has been scarred by religious zealots who care more for their own voice than for those they were sent to reach who stand on the street corner and yell this word out of context, out of hate, and out of an entitled sense of self righteousness…
Story about young kid who just got saved and wanted to go street preaching…
Standing on the street corner with signs that say repent or burn is not an effective strategy of the relational evangelism exemplified by the first century church…
Notice Peter’s sermon brought them to a place where they asked the question, before the answer was given…
Stop answering questions people are not asking… Our value in the community is not to provide a service no one is looking for.
If we are to be effective in our mission for the Kingdom, we must find the questions they are asking and meet them where they are in their broken heart…
I can tell you this, most of those who say they hate religion and especially Christianity, hate us because somewhere along the line they were hurt by someone claiming to be a Christian…
If we are to ever make any progress is bridging the gap that has been created between who we are and who the world perceives us as, we must represent the King well…
We must get to the place where the first century church was, not a place of judgement and condemnation for those who are lost, but in a place where we are putting our own lives on the line in order to save even a few…
Most of those who would yell repent on the street corners wouldn’t give up their next cup of coffee for the lost in our world, but we are called to reach them by laying down our own lives…
1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
Repentance is not a thing of judgement… Repentance here is the greek word: metanoeo which means a change of mind, a change of perspective, a change of direction..
One definition says it like this:
μετανοέω - to change one’s way of life as the result of a complete change of thought and attitude with regard to sin and righteousness.
There is no hate in repentance… There is only hope…
Repent! Change your way of thinking, change your perspective… and
38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you WILL receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!
Remember, this is on the day of Pentecost.. The commotion is still going on behind Peter… They have all witnessed what happens under the power of the Holy Spirit…
And now Peter is telling them, this is from God and you can receive this same outpouring! But first, you must repent and be baptized.
Repent, and be baptized.
Baptism is an urgent next step after repentance for the early church because it takes more than a passing prayer, it takes more than a simple yes.
The baptism is the believer’s first illustrated sermon… This is a declaration that not only have I prayed a prayer, but I have been buried with Christ!
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Peter is telling them, repent, then walk in such a way that everyone around you knows that you are a different person, a new creation, following after a different kingdom!
Don’t allow for your loyalties to be split, you are either ALL IN, all out, or luke warm and only one of those designations make it into heaven…
There is no room for casual Christianity… The stakes are too high, the enemy is too evil, God is too righteous and His Glory is too HOLY…
The Church Jesus is coming back for is one who is on fire, burning with passion and zeal for Him, not a passive, spiritually anemic, sissy church who would rather pacify man than stand for God!
Repent! and be baptized and you will receive the Holy Spirit…
39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
The Promise…
This is the promise we have been looking for… The promise given to the woman in the garden… The promise of a seed… The promise of redemption… The promise of a crushed serpent and a renewed relationship…
The promise of a restored way of life… The promise of a return of a rule and reign…
The promise that we thought was lost… The promise that we had all but given up hope on…
This is not a promise, this is THE promise…
The grand story of redemption that started so many thousands of years beforehand has now finally come to fruition for you and your children… AND for all those who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself…
This is THE promise, offered to you and to me and all those whom the Lord would call to Himself…
Pray
Here’s what I know: God is calling. He’s calling those to whom the promise is offered. You and your children and all those who are far off…
Altar Call for Salvation
Maybe you have a child or other family member that is still far off… They haven’t bought in on this Good News offered by Jesus… This could be their week…
Pray with those who have children that are lost
Pray with those who have family that are lost
