Share Your Faith
Acts (EMPOWERED TO WITNESS) • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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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. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“ ‘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;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
“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— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 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;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
“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. 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, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 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. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
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?” 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. 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.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
INTRODUCTION
Good morning church,
My name is Kenny Uptain and I am the pastor here at The Garden. Today we are continuing our series through the book of Acts where we have been considering that the kingdom of God has always spread through messy people who trust the word of the Lord over the worries of the world. And nowhere is that more plainly seen than in our stories.
And I have shared my messy story many times, not because I am proud of it, but to make much of his name and less of my own. For that reason alone, I will continually share it.
I was divorced from my wife, living a broken life with a bunch of broken people, when the Lord threw a storm at me. I was arrested for my second DWI, and was in an Arlington, TX emergency room, when a police officer shared with me the gospel.
The word gospel literally means good news. And in order to rightly receive the good news, we have to first receive the bad news.
That we are dead in our sins apart from Christ, but in Christ, we are the rescued and redeemed children of God.
And when this Arlington police officer spoke to me the truth of the gospel, I was cut to the heart. Just like the people in our passage today.
In that moment, I did not begin speaking in tongues, nor do I remember some powerful moment of conversion, but I do remember that Jesus kept showing up everywhere in my life after that.
It was as if a veil had been removed from my eyes. I slowly began to wrestle with the Bible, I began to wrestle with my faith, and I began to wrestle with the church. And through all of my wrestling I began to see that Jesus is who he says he is, so I could either surrender to him or continue to go my own way. So I surrendered.
And when I did, he changed my life. He restored my marriage. He restored my family. He gave me a new life. And he gave me a new calling. I had ran so hard against him, that I knew I would spend the rest of my life running toward him, bringing everyone I could with me. Through that, my family and I found a place in his church. We learned that many other people in His church had messy stories. And as a result the church shaped us, and sent us to own our story and plant the Garden.
There are many other stories like that within these walls. Stories that demonstrate our brokenness, and his goodness. Stories that move us from trusting in our worries, to trusting in His word. Stories of how the gospel changed everything.
Because at the intersection of our stories and the gospel is His church.
The kingdom of God has always spread through messy people who trust the word of the Lord over the worries of the world.
And there are two competing stories that are being written. The story the world is writing, and the story that God is writing. And it matters which one we believe.
If it is the story of the world, we will live selfish lives that elevate the flaws of others, while minimizing our own. And as a result we will dehumanize those who are different than us, and continually go our own way.
But the story that God is writing, is one that is working all things, even the hard things, together for the good of those called according to his purpose. And his purpose is that we might look more like Jesus. In his sovereignty, which just means that he is over all, his plan will come to pass, and his story will be fulfilled. And he is doing that through unexpected means, unexpected circumstances and unexpected people.
Peter tells us this in his sermon at Pentecost. Look at Acts 2:23
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
According to God’s definite plan and foreknowledge, lawless men killed Jesus. This means men without direction, men without boundaries. Yet God used them to fulfill His purposes.
Does this mean that God is responsible for what these lawless men did? May it never be!
But it does mean that God is using the bad things to continually author the good things. That is what it means when we say that God is sovereign.
And now the lawless men that killed Jesus, have the opportunity to be the rescued and redeemed children of God, through Jesus. That is the gospel. It doesn’t matter what you did. It doesn’t matter who you were. It matters what He did. God is writing a better story.
And in our text we see Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit telling this giant crowd at Pentecost how that story all points to Jesus as our only hope.
TRANSITION
Which is amazing. Because seven weeks ago Peter was denying Jesus on the night he was taken into custody. But now here he is standing in front of a crowd of thousands confidently proclaiming Jesus as Messiah. He’s not acting out of fear anymore, he’s acting out of faith. And at Pentecost we are reminded that Christ forgives even the worst of our sins, but not just so we can do whatever we want. No, he forgives us and then he then calls us, through the power of the Holy Spirit to boldly share our faith with others. He calls us to use our messy story to make much of him. And that is what Peter is doing. Using his messy story to make much of God.
And while many things get easier over time for us as Christians, such as reading the Bible or praying out loud, sharing our faith does not appear to be one of those. It’s always hard. Maybe it’s because we fear rejection, or we fear awkward conversations, or we fear being asked questions that we may not have the answer for. Whatever the case, the primary motivation for not sharing our faith is fear.
But, if we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit.
And Paul tells us in 2 Tim 1:7
for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
So no matter how messy our story is, and no matter who we were before, the Holy Spirit has given us all that we need to share our faith boldly.
Look at how Peter begins to engage this crowd.
In Acts 2:14
He 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.
Peter stood up and boldly said listen to me!
In Christ, we have the freedom to speak boldly.
Jesus said our faith can move the mountains. Which just means, in my own strength and in my own power, so many things are impossible, but with God all things are possible. And as believers that’s what we have!
The power of God making His home in us through the Holy Spirit. So we can act out of faith not out of fear.
Hebrews 10:38-39 tells us this.
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
Everyone in this room is called to share your faith boldly. And continuing in Hebrews we see just what faith is.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
The Word of God is prophetic, meaning it helps us see what we cannot see, and our faith is the assurance of those unseen promises.
In other words, we believe what we cannot see because God says so, and His Word is reliable.
This is why we don’t need to know everything in order to share our faith boldly. We just need to share how our story and the gospel intersect.
And today in our text, Peter gives us a helpful template on how to do that. He demonstrates that we must
Point to God’s Word.
Know Our Context.
And expect a response.
We’re gonna look at each of those.
TRANSITION
First, in Acts 2:16-21, Peter quickly points to God’s Word.
But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“ ‘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;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
He is telling these Israelites how the miraculous things they are witnessing, were spoken of hundreds of years before.
Peter is reminding them that the Word is prophetic…it helps us see what we cannot see on our own, but it is also alive and active, meaning it helps us to make sense of what we currently see.
There is so much uncertainty in this world. Which causes so much fear.
But A. W. Tozer says
We must face today as children of tomorrow. We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come.
A. W. Tozer
We know how this story ends!
Nothing in this world is catching God off guard. His Word reminds us of that!
And helps us to view our individual stories, as part of the bigger story that He is writing.
The prophetic and living word of God will always provide guidance in times of uncertainty. The Scripture must be fulfilled. Trust His Word and it will transform our worship. And Our Worship is just our life lived in response to His Word.
Peter is growing more and more confident in the word of God, which has transformed his life as a result.
Imagine if we were a people marked by trust in His Word and transformation in Our Worship.
When we boldly trust who He is. We will boldly share who He is.
Point others to God’s Word in your story.
TRANSTION
The next thing Peter demonstrates in this passage is that we must know our context.
Here is what I mean by that. The gospel message does not change. It is always the same.
But the way we present that message varies greatly depending on our context.
Every context and culture has sins and saviors that it runs to. Something they actively worship more than Jesus.
That will look one way in Texas, and another way in New York City. One way in Asia and another way in Africa.
So even though the gospel message remains, your presentation of that message must change.
We see this multiple times in the book of Acts. Peter presents it one way, and Paul presents it in another. And the way they present it depends on their audience. The same is true for us.
You need to know the sins and saviors of the people you are witnessing to. What do they run to instead of Jesus?
Peter knows his context.
Look at
“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—
He knows the story of the people of Israel, and that shapes how he speaks to them.
Going on in
God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 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;
Peter points to God’s Word again. And he also points to King David. A man, this people elevated. And he ties that in with his story.
“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. 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, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
Peter speaks again with confidence, tying his story to their context through the Word of God.
He tells them that David’s writings prophetically pointed to Jesus as someone greater than David.
And he ends with this in
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
This would have certainly reoriented their thoughts on just who this Jesus was.
As the people of Israel they elevated the Scriptures, and they elevated King David, and Peter demonstrated how both the Scriptures and King David elevated Jesus. He speaks into their culture and speaks into their context and shows them that Jesus is better.
As people called to share our faith in this context, we must be aware of the sins and the saviors present here. That begins by understanding what we ourselves run to. And the best way to expose them is by asking, if I lost everything tomorrow, would Jesus be enough? And those things that cause us to say no, can be things that we cling to and actively worship instead of Jesus.
This is the purpose of fasting from something during Lent. It is not about the thing we are giving up. It is about exposing the things that we run to instead of Jesus.
Whatever we run to, good or bad, that isn’t Jesus, is not worthy of our worship. It will only let us down. God’s Word, and King David are not bad things, at all, but they are nothing without Jesus. Like Peter is doing in this passage, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus is better.
So, ask yourself, what are the sins and saviors in your context.
What are people actively running to instead of Jesus?
Know the story of the people you are sharing your faith with and help them to see that Jesus is better.
TRANSITION
And when we share our faith in a way that helps others to see that Jesus is better, they will naturally want to respond.
In Acts 2:37 we witness the response of the crowd.
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?”
When you share the gospel boldly through your story, you can expect a response.
Peter proclaims the gospel pointing to the Word of God, and knowing the culture and context of the people he is witnessing to. And their question is a genuine response to how God’s Word connects with their story.
They are cut to the heart, because Peter has exposed their sins and saviors and shown them that Jesus is better. When we share our faith in this way we should be prepared for our audience to respond.
It might not be as dramatic as the response Peter gets, it might not even be immediate, and that’s ok, but the Word of God does not return void. So when you share it, share it expectantly! His Word is working.
And if they ask what to do, tell them what Peter said,
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.
He does not try to soften it, or sentimentalize it, he tells them boldly to repent. Tell them to turn away from everything that is keeping them from turning to Jesus.
And in Acts 2:41 we get to see the incredible result of that.
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
People will not always receive your word. And that is ok. Not everyone that heard Jesus received his word.
All you can do is tell them the truth. And pray that the Holy Spirit will use your story to help them receive Jesus.
This is how God grows His church. Messy people sharing their faith boldly with other messy people. When they receive Jesus as their savior, they receive the Holy Spirit and are baptized. God the Father, uses God the Spirit to celebrate God the Son and build His church. That’s why we’re here. To join them on mission and make much of Jesus.
The kingdom He is building does not look like the kingdoms of the world.
Jesus tells us this in Matthew 13:31-32
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
Right before Jesus ascended in Acts 1, the disciples asked Him if He was going to restore the kingdom of Israel. And He told them such things were not for them to know. They had no idea that Jesus was doing something so much more than restoring the kingdom of Israel, he was inaugurating the kingdom of God by sending the Holy Spirit to give birth to His church.
It began with twelve who committed their lives to being with Jesus, becoming like Jesus and doing what Jesus did. They walked with Him. They worked with Him. And they were sent by Him to spread His kingdom through the church.
When Peter shared his gospel testimony, the Roman Empire was a worldwide force. We can now go and tour its ruined remains any day of the week. Yet the kingdom of God, which began like a mustard seed, continues to grow and promote human flourishing.
The gospel is the power of God to save those who believe. And that begins as we step out in faith and share our stories.
Every believer’s story, has the capacity to bring others to Christ and transform their lives through the power of the Holy Spirit, and the power of the gospel.
Let us not be those who shrink back. But let us share our stories boldly. Making much of His name and less of our own. Let us tell others how the gospel changes everything.
Because at the intersection of our stories and the gospel is His church.
Let’s pray.
In what ways can we share our own stories to help others connect with the gospel?
What are some fears you have about sharing your faith, and how can you overcome them?
How does understanding our identity in Christ help us share our stories with confidence?
How can trusting God's Word help us when we are feeling scared or worried?
What does it mean to repent and how can we practice that every day?
