Pierced
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
What a beautiful Easter Morning! I am so thankful to our God for bringing us together this morning.
A month or so ago I addressed the congregation and preached a sermon on the Many Proofs of the Resurrection. It was a right “Easterly” sermon. I admitted at the time that the sermon may have been better suited for Easter Sunday but then again any sermon should work for Easter Sunday because all preaching should proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
There won’t be any cutting of square pegs to fit them into round holes this morning - the Resurrection is right in the text because in our continuing study of the Book of acts, we’ve been looking at the first Christian Sermon over the past couple of weeks. Given on the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter stood up with the other 11 disciples - remember they had chosen Matthias to replace the traitor. Peter stood up and explained to a very large crowd what it was they were witnessing.
Peter draws on the Word of God to explain Pentecost. He relies on Scripture. He was one of Jesus’ closest disciples and was often the spokesman for the group. He was taught by the Messiah Himself, but he stood up and preached from the Scriptures. He didn’t just stand up and say “Listen to me because I knew Jesus.” He would go on to preach from that authority, as a firsthand witness to Christ, but he always supported his preaching with God’s Word. Peter’s Sermon - and every sermon recorded for us in the New Testament - was Bible Centered and Christ Focused. And so, at Flack Memorial Church, that is what we desire and aim for - to be Bible Centered and Christ Focused.
Peter began by reminding the crowd of Joel’s prophecy of the “Last Days.” They understood the “Last Days” as being that time when their Messiah would come and restore the Kingdom for God. The Messianic Age as it were. They believed the “Last Days” to be a continual period of time, not the end of the world. In tying the prophesying of the 120 faithful who had received the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues to Joel’s prophecy, Peter proclaimed the “Last Days” had begun. The Messiah had arrived.
What joyous news! The man who would rescue Israel from bondage and setup God’s Kingdom had arrived. But it wasn’t that simple, was it? Peter went on to explain that Jesus the Nazarene was attested by God through miracles and wonders as the Messiah. The crowd knew who Jesus was. The city was packed with people who had been there for the Passover and stayed or came back for the Feast of Pentecost. It was at the Passover that the throngs of people showed their true stripes and demanded the death of Jesus. They had used lawless men - gentiles, those without the gift of God’s Law - to murder Jesus but each of them were as guilty as though they had driven the nails and raised the cross themselves. They had killed their Messiah!
Peter also explained that it was God’s plan that the Messiah would suffer and that God would raise Him up again. Being a true Gospel Preacher, Peter explained this with scripture. He quoted David’s prophecy of the Messiah not seeing corruption or being left in Sheol - a Hebrew word for Hell. Peter didn’t let them off the hook - they bore the guilt of their sin - but God used their evil for His good.
Prayer
Prayer
O eternal, almighty, and most gracious God: heaven is your throne, and earth is your footstool; holy and reverend is your name. Bless us this morning and all mornings with the Word of Your Son Jesus, our Christ. Focus our hearts and minds on Him, Lord.
My God, I pray that my preaching this morning is pleasing to You and is fruitful for Your kingdom. In the very name of Him that we have come to celebrate - Jesus, the Resurrected King, Savior, and Judge of the world. -Amen.
Scripture - Acts 2:32-42
Scripture - Acts 2:32-42
32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. 33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. 34 “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35 Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” ’ 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel 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 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. 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.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Witnesses of the Resurrection - v32
Witnesses of the Resurrection - v32
32 “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
A couple months ago we had an entire sermon on the Many Proofs of the Resurrection. We covered at that time that Jesus had died. There was no doubt in the minds of any that He was dead. A strong bit of evidence that people knew this fact is in John 19:32-34
32 So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; 33 but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
They saw He was dead so they did not break His legs and instead plunged a spear into His side. Little did they know they were fulfilling prophecy. Exodus 12 and Numbers 9 covers the Passover regulations - No bone of a Passover lamb could be broken. And then, Psalm 34:20, another Psalm of David, states that no bone of the Christ would be broken.
The fact of Jesus’ death was simply not up for debate. Pilate received confirmation of His death from the centurion who stood watch over the crucifixion. This is the same centurion who, when he saw Christ take His last breath, remarked “Truly, this was the Son of God.” Mt 27:54 The chief Priests and Pharisees asked Pilate for a guard to secure the tomb for fear of people stealing Jesus’ body. One doesn’t fear the theft of a body unless they’re sure the body has no life in it.
The Apostles and other disciples of Christ were absolutely assured of the death of their Lord. They accepted it as fact and thought that was the end of their friend. Luke 24:11 records that when told that Christ had risen, they thought it was nonsense.
There was no doubt in the mind of anyone that Jesus Christ was hung on a cross until He died. It was verified by regular soldiers, the centurion, Pilate, mockers, believers, and His own mother.
BUT!
Look at our verse again. “This Jesus God raised up again.” We aren’t assured of this because the tomb was emptied. No, we’re assured of this because He appeared alive to so many people. He first appeared to the women who came to anoint His body. He then appeared to Peter and the other disciples. He appeared to 500 at once.
The resurrection made believers out of men who had grown up with Jesus. These men were brothers, a bond that is usually one of the deepest bonds a person has and James and Jude could not bring themselves to faith that their brother was genuinely the Son of God. It took the power of the Holy Spirit resurrecting Jesus to convince them. This conviction took James to his grave as he was stoned to death for it.
Peter says here “to which we are all witnesses.” He’s speaking of the 120 believers that have been waiting in Jerusalem, as Christ commanded, since He ascended. Peter tells the crowd that all of these people are witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. He’s told them Jesus is their long-awaited Messiah and that they killed Him. Now He tells them Jesus Christ is alive!
One final note on this verse before we move on. Look at what Peter called himself and the other believers. It’s a simple word but I don’t want us to lose sight of it. Go back to Acts 1:8 with me.
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”
Peter, and all the rest, are doing exactly what Christ told them to do just before He ascended to His glorious place next to the Father. They are witnesses of Christ. Exactly what each and every follower of Jesus Christ is called to be.
Christ Exalted - v33-36
Christ Exalted - v33-36
33 “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. 34 “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, 35 Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” ’ 36 “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
It was not enough for God to raise Jesus from the dead. It was not enough for God to certify Jesus as the Messiah by resurrecting Him and presenting Him to so many. No, it was not enough to leave it at that because Jesus is the Son of God and is due rightful glory, honor, and power. He has all authority, as given to Him by the Father (Mt 28:18). So, God told Him “Sit at My right hand.”
The “right hand” is a position of power and authority throughout Scripture. This is not lost on the people, they know that it means the person they crucified and thought was dead is not dead but that’s not all - their situation is much more dire than that. Jesus not only lives, He has the authority of God.
They have murdered a man and thought to themselves “well we got rid of that annoyance, on to the rest of our lives,” only to be told now that this man they murdered was no mere man but the Exalted One of God. The Messiah. And He is now at God’s right hand - a position of absolute authority.
Peter says that Jesus “having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.” Jesus Christ was truly man - in every sense of the word. He was also truly God - in every sense of that word. Jesus having been exalted by God the Father, He had received the promise of the Holy Spirit to bestow upon His Church, which is what happened at the beginning of Acts 2.
Peter has taken the crowd right back to the beginning of his explanation of Pentecost. They had seen and heard great phenomena and were bewildered by it. Peter tells them it was because Jesus was exalted and glorified, that God - through Christ - fulfilled His promise of the Spirit and began the messianic age (Joel 2:28-29).
He then quotes David again. This time from Psalm 110. But, before quoting the psalm he reminds them that David could not be speaking of himself because David did not ascend into heaven.
The Psalm starts with these words: “The LORD says to my Lord.” This is so crucial. In your Bibles you will likely have the first rendering of the word LORD in “small-caps”. Each letter is capitalized with the L being slightly larger than the other letters. This is the common method in English translations to show that the word being translated is a proper name for God. In this case it is the holiest of all names for God. A name so holy that the people would not speak it aloud. It is the name God declared to Moses from the burning bush. This is the name YHWH and it means “I AM.” God is God and there is no one and no thing that makes Him God. He is. Period.
Because they didn’t want to profane the very name of God, the Jews came up with many other titles for God. The most sacred of which was “Adonai” and that is the word translated as the second “Lord” in this verse. So, the Psalm begins with “YHWH said to my Adonai.”
Luke wrote the Book of Acts in Koine Greek, so the word used for YHWH was “kyrios” and for Lord “kyrio.” This word “kyrios” means supreme in authority; controller; God, Master. This word was not uttered lightly and without thought.
Roman citizens were required to swear an oath to Caesar and publicly pronounce, “Kaisar kyrios,” meaning “Ceasar is lord” but this was a problem for Christians. Luke records for us in the Book of Acts how the Christians were not a threat to Rome, they were willingly to be civil servants of Rome and to give honor and their obedience to the emperor. But, swearing that “Caesar is lord” was impossible. Their confession, the first creed of the early church was “Jesus ho kyrios,” meaning “Jesus is Lord.”
In verse 36 we see that Peter summarized his sermon with the absolute statement that God made Jesus both Lord and Christ.
We’ve had a lot of creeds in the history of the church - each faithful one was designed to correct some kind of wrong theology and remind the church of essential doctrine. This first creed was simple and to the point and no doubt refuted some heresy that set Christ up as savior but not sovereign. Paul writes in Romans 10:9
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
and in 1 Cor 12:3
3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed”; and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Seeing this as the first creed and the simplicity but profound implications of it, I am not surprised that 2,000 years later Satan is still doing his worst to extinguish the idea. When someone recognizes Jesus is Lord, they submit to Him, they seek to please Him. There are a great many so-called christians today who claim Jesus is their savior but they will not say Jesus is Lord. It’s even turned into what some call “the Lordship-Salvation controversy.” They say that to tell people that Jesus is Lord is legalism and that Jesus was all about forgiveness, not people changing to suit Him. They say that one can be saved without fruit of the Spirit. That Jesus doesn’t care what you do, just call on Him.
It’s rubbish. Absolute heresy. Peter tells us right here, actually Peter doesn’t, David does. And if you want to get right down to it, no prophecy is from a prophet but from God. God tells us in Psalm 110 that Jesus Christ is Lord. He tells us in Romans 10:9; 1 Cor 12; and all throughout Scripture that God is Sovereign. He is YHWH. He is “I AM.” There is no God except YHWH and we are His creation. God made Heaven and Earth. God made Christ the Lord of the universe. He acts according His Will for His Glory and He doesn’t wait for us to invite Him. We are His subjects and He is our Lord whether we have submitted to Him or not.
A secular version of this is what is called the “Sovereign Citizen.” There are folks who think that all they have to do is say “I’m Sovereign” and then the government has no authority over them. They end up in court for silliness like refusing to register their car and then they start questioning the judge. It always ends badly for them because their acquiescence is not necessary for the government to have authority over them.
Now take that scenario and play it out at the foot of God’s throne. Who do you think is being spoken of when God says to Christ, “Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.” The very people who think they’re sovereign; somehow they are “sovereign citizens” of God’s Kingdom because they believe that the Jesus of the Bible existed; they may even believe that He is God’s Son and that God raised Him from the dead but they have not repented because they are “generally pretty good”; they do not recognize Jesus as their Lord because they’re their own man - no one tells them what to do. That’s a sure sign someone has not received the Holy Spirit and does not believe in Jesus Christ as God Incarnate, as the supreme Lord of the Universe.
Peter’s final statement here is “this Jesus whom you crucified.” They are not off the hook; they crucified the Lord and Christ. Last week I made the point that we often like to associate ourselves with the “good guys” in stories. We don’t often put ourselves in the shoes of the “bad guys.” But, I want you to think to yourselves for a moment, did you crucify “this Jesus?” Keep that question in mind. We’re going to come back to it.
The Result - v37-39
The Result - v37-39
Let’s look at the result of the Holy Spirit’s work through His servant Peter’s sermon.
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. 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.”
When they heard the sermon, their hearts were shattered. The word “pierced” here is not meant to convey some quaint feeling. They had just seen and heard the proof of God’s Spirit coming into the world in abundance. Individual prophets had the gift of the Spirit since the beginning but now the Spirit was poured out. This meant the Messiah had arrived but they had killed Him!!! They had seen the proof that He was the Messiah but they had ignored it. Some had even worshiped Him and declared His greatness on His triumphant entry to the Holy City. God had made this Jesus Lord and Christ. But they had killed Him. They know now that He is seated at the right hand of God. But they had killed Him. They are destroyed.
This is what happened to the prophet Isaiah when he saw the glory of God. Isaiah 6:5
5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
The Septuagint - the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures which was the most commonly used Scriptures by the Jews in the 1st Century. The Septuagint translates the Hebrew word which we read as “ruined” as the verb form of the greek word katanyssomai - ka ta knee so meyh. That word is used only once in the New Testament. Only one time and it is here in Acts 2:37. They were pierced to the heart. They were ruined by what they had just heard and begged to know what they could do about it all. What hope did they have? What can we do now that we have crucified YHWH’s Anointed One?
Peter makes it clear. Crystal clear. “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;”
Notice, Peter does not say “Invite Christ into your hearts. Ask Him to be Your Lord and Savior.” The call is to “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Repentance is a change of mind - a turning from one way to another. In the case of salvation it is turning away from sin and towards righteousness, found only in Christ. Repentance is to be attested by an outward act of baptism. If you don’t believe you have anything to repent of, then I guess the call isn’t for you. My heart is pierced for all of you who think that.
To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to publicly proclaim your faith in Him. This was no easy matter - especially not for these people the day of Pentecost. This confession of faith would mean shunning from family and friends, your livelihood and even your very life would be at stake (John 9:22). The Religious Establishment and the Government had just executed the man and now they are called to profess faith in Him as the Son of God - the Messiah.
Peter says to be baptized in the name of Christ “for the forgiveness of sins.” Many have incorrectly interpreted this to mean that water baptism saves. But, that idea is foreign to Scripture. There is an important principal known as “the analogy of Scripture” which states that no passage, when correctly interpreted, will teach something contradictory to the rest of Scripture. Applying that principal, we see that all of Scripture teaches salvation is solely by faith (Jn 1:12; 3:16; Acts 16:31; Rom 3:21-30; 4:5; 10:9-10; Phil 3:9; Gal 2:16). Additionally, Scripture teaches forgiveness is linked to repentance, not baptism. We also have the some who were saved without any mention of baptism (Lk 7:37:50; Mt 9:2; Lk 18:13-14). We also have some who were baptized but not saved (Acts 8:13; 21-23). Finally, Christ spent His entire earthly ministry rebuking the ritualistic religion of the scribes and Pharisees; it makes absolutely no sense that He would then go on to institute a ritualistic religion of His own. What Peter is saying here is repent for forgiveness of your sins and be baptized. Baptism follows that forgiveness; it does not cause it (Acts 8:12, 34-39; 10:34-48; 16:31-33).
Peter continues; “and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
And again, the order is repentance, then forgiveness, then the gift of the Holy Spirit. The word for gift here is dōrea - doh ray ah. It refers to that which is free and unmerited. You don’t receive the gift in exchange for anything you have done. If you did, it would be payment, not a gift. Think of it this way - you’re speeding down 69 hwy and cause an accident, killing someone. You go to court and say, “Judge, I’m real sorry. I messed up so bad. I repent of my bad behavior, I don’t drive like that anymore.” What does the judge do? Does he say “okay, Joe, you’re free to go.” No, absolutely not. People would be screaming for that judge to be disbarred! No, the judge casts judgment and Joe goes to jail. With God, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit when we repent and He forgives us. What does that mean though? It means that the Holy Spirit joins us to Christ forever. It means that the righteousness of Christ is imputed on us so that when we stand before God’s throne we are not footstools for Christ. The gift of the Holy Spirit “is given to us so that we may believe with righteousness in our hearts and make a true confession about being saved (Romans 10:10), so that we may pass from death to life (John 5:24), so that we who were poor and empty may be rich and may withstand the world and Satan.” - John Calvin
Finally, Peter says
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 of the Holy Spirit is for everyone God calls to Himself. The people that day, their children, the nation of Israel, even those who are far off - the Gentile world. This is not a new promise, it is the promise God made throughout the OT. Isaiah 44:3; Ezek 36:27; 37:14; Joel 2:28-29
It is not for us to know exactly who God is calling. That is His business. I’ll get to ours in a moment.
The Fruit - v40-42
The Fruit - v40-42
We’ll finish out today’s passage with three more verses.
40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Now, I think Luke knew some 2,000 years ago that folks would say preachers preach too long and then try to use what looks like a rather short sermon of Peter’s as their prooftext. I have turned Peter’s sermon into 3 of my own. But, Luke doesn’t tell us how long Peter preached. He does tell us that “with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them.” So, I am confident I have yet to preach as long as Peter did on the day of Pentecost and even if I have, I’ll chalk it up to not being nearly as good as the blessed Apostle.
Peter continued preaching and warning them about the perverseness of the generation. I’ve got sad news for you, its the same perverse generation today. It hasn’t gotten better. Man has gotten more sophisticated in his delusion that he doesn’t need God, but that’s about it.
With all of this preaching - empowered by the Holy Spirit - three thousand souls repented, were forgiven of their sins, and were baptized that day. What a day that was. God’s Spirit started the day off with sights and sounds - wonders of God. And He finished that day with the saving of 3,000 people!!
And then the 3,000 went back to their normal lives and called themselves Christians. Happily ever after, right?
No, not at all. Verse 42 isn’t there by mistake - it’s not an anomaly. “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”
The “they” here are the 3,000 who were saved that day. They continually devoted themselves to the teaching of the Word of God. They continually devoted themselves to fellowship with other believers by breaking bread with them and praying with them. Christ established His church so that we may be one with each other and with Him. His church is no a couple million individual souls living out their “very personal relationship” with Him. His church is more than that; He established it on earth for us to draw encouragement from it. For us to carry each others burdens. For us to exhort and correct one another.
Summary
Summary
A few minutes ago I asked you a question. I asked you “Did you crucify ‘this Jesus’?”
The answer to that is profoundly simple and I’ll show it to you with Scripture. Turn with me to Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 3 verse 10. We’ll read Romans 3:10-12
10 as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; 11 There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; 12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”
This is a quote of Psalms 14 and 53, verse 1-3 of each. Not a single one of us is righteous. Not a single person to have ever lived, saved Jesus - God Incarnate - has ever lived a sinless life. We all put our wants above God and we all do this not once in our lives but repeatedly.
So, I’ll ask you again; did you crucify “this Jesus?” I won’t put it all on you though, I’ll give you my answer, “Yes. Yes, I did.”
As much as that breaks my heart and simultaneously causes me to fear and tremble at the thought of being Christ’s footstool. Let’s read a little further in Pauls letter to the Romans. Take a look at Romans 3:23-25
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25a whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
We are all sinners, yes. But God has provided for us the propitiation - the payment - for our sin. That payment was made in full by God’s Son, Jesus. He paid it all with His precious blood and all to Him we owe. We who believe in Jesus Christ as a Lord and Savior have been justified - not through any ritual that we have performed but through the free gift of God’s Grace.
Those of you who are Christians already, I draw your attention back to the Prophet Isaiah. When he fully understood who God is it made him understand who he was. When he understood this he was broken and said “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” A seraphim touched his lips with a burning coal and told him his iniquity had been taken away and his sin forgiven. He heard the voice of the Lord, say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
Isaiah had received the gift of forgiveness for his sin. He had received that which he did not earn and could not earn. His response to the God of the Universe asking who can be sent to proclaim the Word of God? “Here am I. Send me!”
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, are you telling the world around about the very Word of God, Jesus the Nazarene, your Lord and Savior? Don’t let a single person wonder if you are a true Christian. Don’t let anyone say of you, “oh, they go to church but they don’t follow Christ.” Don’t let anyone escape from knowing you without knowing that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior!
If you’re listening to me today and have not submitted to the risen Lord, the only God who has made himself lowly and lived amongst his creation, and allowed himself to become the very sin that creation stands guilty of, and who by the power of His own Spirit raised up after being put to death. His name is Jesus, Jehovah, Elohim, YHWH. Are you willing to proclaim to the world that He is your Lord and Christ? If so, you need to do it right now. You need to set yourself aside and follow Jesus Christ. There is no other way to God except Jesus. The alternative is as horrible as you can imagine and then magnified by a number you cannot fathom.
I and the elders will be up front during the closing hymn for any who would like to pray or make that profession of faith in Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Prayer
My God and my rock, redeemer of souls, just and righteous judge; your work in the world astounds us and leaves us in awe. We thank you Lord for your Son. We thank you for proving Him to us. We thank you for raising Him. We thank you for the gift of Your Spirit. We ask you, God to bring all those who you are calling to repentance and to forgive them of their sins, Lord. If there are any in our midst today who You have called have them stand up right now for You God. Stand up just as Peter stood up to witness for You. Have them repent this morning, Lord. Have them repent of their sin right now and have them proclaim your mighty works in Jesus’ name.
In the name of the One who saves us from certain death; Jesus, our Lord and our Christ. Amen.
