Beginning At the End: God's Rescue Mission

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.”

In 2009 an Ohio judge named, Paul Herbert created a program called CATCH Court. The word CATCH is an acronym for Changing Attitudes to Change Habits. CATCH Court is a two year restorative justice program for women who are caught up in prostitution. Through this court women are sent to residential rehabilitation programs to detox and receive intensive therapy.

Here’s how Judge Herbert came to the point of creating this program. He was using Pastor Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life, on Sunday evenings to disciple and train his daughters in Christianity. And one night they asked him, “Daddy, what is your purpose?”

He said, “that really got me.” He gave them a vague answer about being, “a light on the bench,” but that night, he candidly prayed this prayer to God:

“God, I realize that being a judge is a unique position. Not many people get this opportunity. Can you show me some way that I could be significant for you in my work?”

What God did in response to that prayer is shake up his categories (coming to God in prayer doesn’t change God…). He would regularly have victims of domestic violence come before him in court.

One day he saw a woman come in with bruises and thought she was a domestic violence victim. He looked down at the file and saw she was a defendant — the charge: "prostitution". It hit him that with similar bruises and hollow eyes, it was hard to tell the difference between a victim of domestic violence and a defendant charged with prostitution. He began to research human trafficking, prostitution, and sexual exploitation. What he discovered astounded him. Human trafficking was thriving in Columbus, Ohio, and there were limited means of escaping the cycle of exploitation and abuse.

He admitted that prior to this change he would’ve said that women engaged in prostitution were in involved in the “world’s oldest profession.” Now he considers it, “the world’s oldest oppression.”

He said, and I quote,

“The Holy Spirit continues to reveal how much I’ve been forgiven, and how similar I am to the individuals that come before me.”

He is keenly aware of the fact that he’s been rescued by God. God’s rescue mission found him. So, he launches this program that becomes a rescue mission, helping to save lives of people who have begun to realize their need for rescue.

This morning we are listening in on the apostle Peter; jumping in on his Day of Pentecost sermon here in . Jesus has risen from the dead. He has ascended into heaven. And just as he promised, he has poured out the Holy Spirit to empower his people to be his witnesses, his representatives on earth. And that’s what’s happening. The story of God’s people didn’t begin on Pentecost. His saving work began in the OT, but something special and spectacular happened on Pentecost. There was both a completion and a new beginning. The church begins at the end. The end is the fulfillment of God’s promise to pour out his Spirit on all people, without discrimination of ethnicity or gender or class, that promise was complete. And so at the end there was also a new beginning. The beginning of what Peter calls the “last days.” Pentecost is the birth and the beginning explosion of God’s rescue mission. From that day until this one, and on until the day Jesus Christ returns, his church moves forward, empowered by his Spirit, as the vehicle of his rescue mission.

No one rescues like God. The question is, “where are you?” Do you realize your need for a rescuer? Judge Herbert sits on the bench, deciding the fate of people who have broken the law. Yet he’s not blind to his own need for rescue. This rescue mission is what Peter is putting before us this morning.

The disciples are miraculously declaring the mighty works of God in foreign languages, and the people are astonished and amazed. So, Peter is preaching a message to explain what’s going on. And we’re breaking in on the middle of his message because we need to see this Easter Sunday that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the heart of God’s rescue mission. No one rescues like God. The question is, “where are you?” Do you realize your need for a rescuer? Judge Herbert sits on the bench, deciding the fate of people who have broken the law. Yet he’s not blind to his own need for rescue. This rescue mission is what Peter is putting before us this morning.

This first Pentecost is marked by a sermon, a sermon that does what all sermons should do, result in a clearer and deeper understanding of Jesus. Peter is explaining to the multitude of people from every nation under heaven, who have gathered around the disciples, the significance of what they are seeing. Peter has a three part sermon (therefore, so will we). He uses three OT passages to show that what has now begun is a result of what has been completed. Lavish Pouring (vv. 14-21);Loosened Pangs (vv. 22-32); Lifted Pedestal (vv. 33-36). To make sure we’re clear on what we’ll be talking about in these three points, the lavish pouring is God’s generous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all who call on the name of the Lord. The loosened pangs is God’s conquest over death and sin in raising Jesus from the dead. And the lifted pedestal is the permanent presence and power of Jesus exalted at the right hand of the Father.

Lavish Pouring

Peter is front and center again. He stood up in the middle of the 120 disciples when it was time to appoint someone to replace Judas Iscariot in the apostolic ministry back in 1:15. Now, after the Holy Spirit has been poured out on the disciples, and they pour out into the street miraculously speaking in other languages as they declare the mighty works of God, Peter stands up again, lifts his voice and addressed the multitude of people to explain what’s going on.

We’ve just been told how all of these people are responding to this worship scene. They’re hearing the disciples declare the mighty works of God in all of these different languages, and they respond with perplexity and cynicism. Luke said in vv. 12-13…

Acts 2:12–13 ESV

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Peter gets up and says, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay close attention to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only 9 o’clock in the morning!” Some people thought that they had it figured out and attributed the Spirit’s work to something sinful, drunkenness. Now it’s certainly possible for a group of people to be drunk at 9 AM, but Peter is setting the record straight. This is not drunkenness. This is the work of the Spirit of God.

Luke does something intentional here. Back in v. 4 Luke says that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. What happened next is that they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, or to translate the verb another way, “as the Spirit gave them to declare.” Then, in v.14, Luke says that Peter, as he stood with the eleven, lifted up his voice and declared to them. The ESV says “utterance” in v. 4 and “addressed” in v. 14, but it’s translating the same verb. The point is that it’s not just the miracle of tongues that was given to the disciples by the Spirit. But what Peter is about to preach, in the common language of the people is also given by the Spirit. Both the exuberant worship of God in these worldwide languages and this clear proclamation of what it all means is driven by the Spirit of God. Both praise and preaching are the Spirit’s work.

The message that these people from every nation needed to understand was that the end had come. The end that marked a new beginning had arrived. The new beginning was the lavish pouring out of the Spirit of God. Peter says, what you see might be new, but it’s not unexpected. This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel. Then he quotes from … (rd. Vv. 17-21).

Acts 2:17–21 ESV

“ ‘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.’

In the prophet is announcing the coming of the great and magnificent Day of the Lord, when the Lord will act in righteousness and mercy. Peter says, “this that you see is that which was said.” Joel uses the word afterword, and Peter rightly interprets him to mean, “the last days.” He says, we’re living in the last days. And guess what? We’re still living in them. The sign that the last days have come is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.

Notice this with me. God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.” “All flesh is not a typical phrase we use in our common vernacular.” What God was saying to Israel through the prophet Joel, 500 years before Peter’s sermon was, “I will pour out my Spirit on the whole human race!”

What was Israel waiting for. What was it like to be in first century Jerusalem, having the promises of God in the prophets and waiting for them to be fulfilled but not knowing how it was going to happen?

Acts for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–12 It’s All Coming True at Last! (Acts 2:14–21)

It’s only by imagining that world, a world where people were puzzling and praying over ancient texts to try to find urgently needed meanings in times of great stress and sorrow, that we can understand how Peter could even think of launching in to a great long quotation from the prophet Joel in order to explain the apparently confused babbling and shouting that was going on. If I was asked by a crowd to explain why my friends and I appeared to be behaving in a drunken fashion I don’t somehow think I would at once start quoting chunks of the Bible, even the New Testament. But Jerusalem was full of people who were eager for signs that maybe the people of Israel had at last arrived at their destination, even if it didn’t look like they thought it was going to do. Yes, says Peter. We’ve got to the point where all that the brochures said is starting to come true. These are indeed ‘the last days’.

“I will pour out my Spirit on the whole human race,” God says, “sons, daughters, young, old, male and female slaves.” This pouring out is like the picture of a tropical rainstorm. I remember the first time I went to Trinidad during the rainy season. The Sun could be out shining brightly in the heat of the day. All of a sudden there’d be dark rain clouds and a torrential downpour. Everything got wet. Then as quickly as it came it’d be gone. The imagery from Joel is like that tropical storm. There is an abundance of the Spirit poured out. It’s illustrating the generosity of God’s gift of the Holy Spirit. And who gets wet? Who does the downpour come upon? Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. You can’t call on the name of the Lord and not get wet.

What does it mean to be a part of this lavish outpouring? “I will pour out my Spirit,” the Lord says in v. 18, “and they shall prophesy.” I think that John Stott is right when he quotes from Martin Luther in his commentary by saying,

“[P]rophecying, visions, and dreams are all one thing. That is, the universal gift (the Spirit) will lead to a universal ministry (prophecy)… In this sense, all of God’s people are now prophets, just as all are also priests and kings. So Luther understood prophecy here as ‘the knowledge of God through Christ which the Holy Spirit kindles and makes to burn through the word of the gospel’… In fact, it is this universal knowledge of God through Christ by the Spirit which is the foundation of the universal commission to witness (1:8). Because we know him, we must make him known.”

Do you get it? With this lavish outpouring of the Holy Spirit all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, without distinction of age, gender, social status or ethnicity receive the wisdom and ability to know God. That’s the day Moses hoped for in when the Lord took some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the 70 elders who had come to the tent. Then, when the Spirit rested on two of the elders who hadn’t come to the tent and Joshua told Moses to stop them from prophesying, Moses said, “don’t be jealous for my sake. I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Well, what Moses longed for, and what Joel predicted, Peter says is here. It has been fulfilled. And the result is that all who call on the name of the Lord, regardless of gender, age, race, ethnicity, nationality, or anything else, shall be saved. And “to be saved” doesn’t simply mean you’re going to go to heaven when you die. It means, as N.T. Wright puts it,

Acts for Everyone, Part 1: Chapters 1–12 It’s All Coming True at Last! (Acts 2:14–21)

It means ‘knowing God’s rescuing power, the power revealed in Jesus, which anticipates, in the present, God’s final great act of deliverance’.

Do you know God’s rescuing power. Have you experienced his deliverance from your disordered obsession with yourself. Are you able to say with the saints of old, “I ain’t what I want to be, but thank God I ain’t what I used to be!”

Loosened Pangs

The lavish outpouring is great news. It was necessary for them to understand that this is what the Lord does for all who call on his name. And it’s necessary for us to understand and constantly be reminded that God hasn’t discriminated. If you trust in Jesus Christ, you have been given his Spirit. You know him and you’re able to make him known. As important as that is to know and remember, Peter doesn’t stop there. It’s not enough to know that the Spirit has been poured out. It’s necessary to know why and how it came to be. So, he explains why the lavish pouring came. It came because of the loosened pangs. It came because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

His message in vv. 22-24 is that this is happening because of what God did through Jesus Christ. He gets specific. Jesus the Nazarene, the one from Nazareth, who was attested to you by God. In other words, God proved what kind of man he was by mighty works and signs and wonders that God did through him, as you yourselves know. Peter didn’t feel any need to verify that Jesus had done miraculous and mighty things. There were enough people among the multitude there who could attest to that fact. What he does need to clarify is that what happened to Jesus was God’s plan all along.

Jesus had told his disciples on several occasions that he would be delivered over into the hands of men who would beat him and scourge him and crucify him. Peter points the arrow right at the crowd and says, “you killed him, having him crucified by the hands of lawless men.” But, when Jesus hung on that cross battered and bloodied, crying out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,” that was no accident. That wasn’t the victory of evil and injustice. It was nothing less than the definite plan of God. They are guilty of putting Jesus to death. But what happened was not an accident of history. Jesus’ was delivered up into the hands of lawless men according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.

Peter lets them know that they didn’t know who they were dealing with. They thought it was over when Jesus died. They thought when the crowds shouted “crucify him” that it was the end. But it was only the beginning. God was going to get the glory. God was going to glorify himself by glorifying Jesus. Peter says, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was impossible for him to be held by it.” It was impossible for death to have the final say over Jesus. Why is that?

Let me come at it this way. Is anyone in here an older sibling? Anyone in here a younger sibling? You all know that part of the job of younger siblings is to get on the nerves of older siblings. Here’s one of the ways it worked in our household as our children were growing up. We have four children. Three of them are boys. Our first two boys are four years apart. Our youngest son, whom y’all know as Jeremiah, is eight years younger than son number 2. As is often the case with younger brothers, Jeremiah would like to jump on and wrestle with his older brothers. They’d tolerate it for a while. But as soon as they get tired of it they just hold him down so he couldn’t move. They wouldn’t let him go until he said he’d stop messing with them. But Jeremiah knew that he had a trump card in his back pocket. And what he’d do is call me. “Daddy!” He calls me because he knows not only that I’m in charge, be he knows that they know that I’m in charge. And if I say let him go, they’ve got to let him go. Peter’s like, “Y’all thought death had some say so in this thing? Y’all thought death had some authority over Jesus? You don’t know who his Daddy is! God’s glory and power and might trumps everything! God was running this show all along. Death was trying to hold Jesus down, but it was impossible because everyone and everything, including death, has to listen to God!”

He quotes from to make the point that the Scriptures already told you that death would have to let Jesus go. (read vv. 25-28)…

Acts 2:25–28 ESV

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.’

David wasn’t talking about himself. I can tell you with confidence that he died and was buried. We know where his tomb is. His flesh saw corruption and decay. But David was talking beforehand about the resurrection of Christ. This Jesus, Peter says in v. 32, God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. All these folk you think are drunk are full of praise because they are witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus, the man from Nazareth. Y’all are only witnesses to his death so you don’t get our praise.

Do we really get this? Has it really sunk in for you that in Jesus Christ is the defeat of death? Death is more powerful than anything except God! Death is pervasive. That is, it places everyone in its grip. And when the impact of death hits us it is rarely the case that we want it to come. Death is personified in the Bible as an enemy; an enemy that we are afraid of and powerless to fight. Not a week goes by when we don’t experience the reality of death. These are things that might not be the loss of life, but we are always being confronted with losses that remind us that this world is broken. And into all of that brokenness; into the all pervasive reality of death comes the reality that it was impossible for Jesus to be held by death. And because it was impossible for death to hold him down, because he got up from the grave at the crack of dawn on that first Easter Sunday morning, he has become our hope for life. In him we join in to his defeat of death. We partake of his glorious life.

They needed to know the same thing that we need to know. The resurrection of Jesus Christ set God’s rescue mission into full effect. They were guilty. Peter said, “y’all crucified him.” That’s a corporate “you.” How many of these people were there when Pilate said he was going to release Jesus and the crowd responded, “Crucify him!”? We don’t know. But Peter doesn’t leave anyone out. They were all guilty and in need of rescue. They needed the resurrection to happen. They needed the pangs of death to be loosed for Jesus if they weren’t going to be left in their guilt.

Until Peter said this they weren’t even aware of their guilt before God. There’s no indication that they had a problem with Jesus’ being put to death. And that’s just like some of us. Having no sense of our guilt before God. Having no realization that our own sin, the corruption of our own hearts make it such that Peter might has well have been talking to us when he said, “you killed Jesus.” When we become aware of the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead and refused to let him see corruption, our corruption becomes exposed. So our need for rescue also becomes exposed. It has always been, and will always be easier for me to look at you, and see what’s wrong with you, than it is to look inwardly. The prophets of old had grieved over the sins of the people. The people didn’t see their sickness and their deep corruption.

Jeremiah 8:20–22 ESV

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

The answer to Jeremiah’s question is YES. There IS a balm in Gilead to heal the sin sick soul. It is the resurrected Christ. And God’s rescue mission of grabbing up sinners like you and me and restoring us to life in his presence because Jesus Christ is not only raised up, but he is lifted up and exalted at the right hand of the Father. He holds a permanent place of power at the right hand of the majesty on high.

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? ()

Lifted Pedestal

Our last “LP” is the lifted pedestal. How did this outpouring come? The exalted Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit upon his people. Peter says in v. 33…

Acts 2:33 ESV

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.

I’ve made this point before. Jesus is not passive. He’s not in heaven twiddling his thumbs wondering what to do with his time. He is, as one commentator says, “an active figure in salvation and a mediator of God’s blessing that leads to salvation and righteousness.” Peter closes his sermon with one more quote from Scripture. This time he goes to , another psalm of David. He says, David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he talked about Jesus’ ascension back in when he said…

Jesus is not passive. He’s not in heaven twiddling his thumbs wondering what to do with his time. He is, as one commentator says, “an active figure in salvation and a mediator of God’s blessing that leads to salvation and righteousness.” Peter closes his sermon with one more quote from Scripture. This time he goes to , another psalm of David. He says, David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he talked about Jesus’ ascension back in when he said…

Psalm 110:1 ESV

The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

What everybody needs to know for certain, then, is that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Here it is again. They need to be aware of their personal and corporate guilt. Do you know who it is you crucified? Not just some regular Joe like you thought, but the exalted Lord and Christ. Jesus had already applied this same verse to himself (; ). Now that he is risen from the dead and exalted to the throne of God, his disciples now get it. Peter says it here first in this sermon. The apostle Paul will do the same thing in where he says that Jesus’ resurrection is the firstfruits of those who belong to Christ,

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ()

The Pastor will quote this verse to Hebrews in ,

And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? ()

The testimony of the NT is that you need to know that Jesus is exalted. He is Lord and Christ. He has authority and lordship over God’s rescue mission. Bock,

“The term ‘Lord’ in this context shows in particular Jesus’s lordship over salvation and the distribution of salvation’s benefits… The ‘Christ’ is the figure of deliverance.”

So here’s how God’s rescue mission works. (Trinity Sunday) The Father sent the Son and verified who he was through supernatural works. The Son was crucified at the hands of lawless men, but that was part of God’s plan all along. The Father raised the Son from the dead and exalted him to his rightful place at the throne of God. The Son then lavishly and generously pours out the Spirit upon all who call on his name. He rescues them and sends them on his rescue mission.

Peter clarifies that you can’t think about God’s work without thinking about Jesus. At the core of God’s work to rescue his world, to redeem it from the decay and devastation caused by sin and corruption—at the core of that work is Jesus’ resurrection, exaltation and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The question is, where do we fall in that mission? Are we those who call upon the name of the Lord, receive the Spirit and join the mission? Are we those who don’t yet get that Jesus is both Lord and Christ? Let everybody know that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord and Christ! That’s Peter’s take home point. The one that Joel was talking about when he said, “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” that Lord is Jesus of Nazareth. And with the pouring out of his Spirit comes the beginning of the end. So, in his resurrection Jesus defeated death. In his exaltation Jesus is confirmed as Lord and Messiah. In his outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Jesus began the end.

Here’s the deal. Last week was Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the new covenant Church. And unlike us, the Church will never stop having birthdays. There will never come a year when we’ll be able to say, “Oh, I remember the Church, she died. No need for anymore birthday celebrations.” That will never happen. Why? Because she is kept alive and vibrant by her resurrected and exalted Lord. He continues to fill her with his Spirit to be his continued presence in and to the world for his rescue mission. Do you embrace your need for rescue?…

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