Acts 2:14-24

What should a sermon sound like? .

Apostolic sermon (inspired cf. ).

What should a sermon sound like? If you confess sola scriptura this question is answered in our text . This is an apostolic sermon. The verb “addressed” implies divine inspiration (cf. ). This is an inspired sermon and because we not only want to believe the apostles doctrines but follow their example, we do well to ask here, “What is a biblical sermon? What should we hear at church? What do we want to hear every Lord’s Day at CRC?”

“What is a biblical sermon? What should we hear at church? What do we want to hear every Lord’s Day at CRC?”

“What is a biblical sermon? What should we hear at church? What do we want to hear every Lord’s Day at CRC?”

First, we need a minister devoted to God alone .

Judea and Jerusalem? ()? God’s Word ().

Peter will later move from here to the ends of the earth. This is the movement of sola scriptura… every jot and tittle of Scripture…

Ministers can be tempted to devote themselves to just about anything.

Prosperity is a big temptation (devotion that sells)

Entertainment is another

Politics, some devote themselves to pundits as… Once a church hitches its wagons to a side, it’s a sign that this present life is more valuable than the free offer of the gospel.

There is a subtle temptation to follow trends to market… Great Again… We cannot

“tie Christ’s grace to this present life. We need to become used to thinking that Christ’s kingdom is spiritual. So that we may learn that Christ’s good things are heavenly.”

We cannot seek our happiness in this world but in God’s Word alone. A minister cannot be earthbound. He is bound to the Word alone.

A minister devoted to God alone will preach the Word alone . We must expect to hear God’s Word on Sunday (cf ).

“What do you do?”

What should we hear from a man devoted to God and his Word alone? This apostolic sermon begins with a rebuttal .

Apostolic sermons are confrontational

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Reformational thing? Biblical thing.

Second, apostolic sermons explain the fulfillment of God’s promises . Peter turned to God’s promise in the OT… redemptive… .

Peter declared that the last days had taken place ( says, “those days”).

What Joel longed for has come to pass. Christ has come and we don’t need to search anymore. The time is now.

The time is now for the church to move . The verb “pour out” suggests an unprecedented deluge of God’s Spirit (cf. ; ). The Spirit equips the church .

“All flesh” (limitless)

When God promises his people salvation, he says he will give them his Spirit. There is no greater treasure on earth. Apostolic sermons equip the church for a mission.

What’s the mission? Prophecy .

What ever the visions and dreams

What is prophecy? Its the special gift of understanding.

Visions and dreams in the OT gave insight into the heavenly world, so that God’s character and will could be proclaimed. We now know that character and will. We have heavenly insight in God’s Word. In the OT only a few were prophets… general office. We are all prophets. The gift is general, its the Spirit born ability to hear, believe, and bear witness to the gospel.

You are jars of clay with gospel treasures the world needs to hear. Apostolic sermons pour this treasure into your life every Lords’ Day.

Apostolic sermons preach the necessity of faith. Even on my servants, means that this promise is restricted… profane his Spirit… Until we believe we are not God’s servants. The grace of the Holy Spirit is only for the church and it is only for the glory of Christ . These wonders and signs happened a little more than seven weeks early in Jerusalem at the time of Christ’s death . This is the glory of Christ’s return when he will come to judge the living and the dead. Now is the time to act .

Joel indicates that these last days are the right time to call on God. Apostolic sermons call for a response of faith.

Today is the day of salvation.

The movement the church…

Apostolic sermons preach the free offer of the gospel. They preach Christ and him crucified . The miracles of Jesus were not mere “wonders.” So many focus here on… here the Spirit of God and the wonders highlight the “mighty works” of Christ. Jesus’ mighty works are signs that the Kingdom of God has come as Hebrews says, “the powers of the age to come.” Jesus said (). Those who saw these mighty works agreed .

The right use of all Christ’s gifts is to bring us to Christ.

Apostolic sermons must bring sinners to Christ.

We need to see Christ this day.

We must have Christ in this place.

We need the power and might of God . God promised his Son a cross.

God put his Son to death through “lawless men” . The Jewish authorities… d God himself is said by Paul not to have spared his own Son but to have “given him up for us all” (). It was the divine purpose, revealed through the prophets, that the Messiah should suffer ().

God is sovereign over all the earth, sovereign to remove our guilt and assure us of salvation.

You can rest in the power of God. Jesus said that no one… Its a sovereignty that gave us a cross.

Its a sovereign love that will preserve you to the end . Apostolic sermons move toward an end— marching to the resurrection of Christ. They are full of the glory of God.

Now notice something here…

Where’s the prosperity?

Who cares… who has done mighty works through… If we are lying in misery and perishing… this gospel provides… while there is still time.

Who cares, if there is a God, who has done mighty works through the death and resurrection of his Son. If we are lying in misery and perishing in sin everyday and this gospel provides the only means of escaping these pangs of death; then let us hear it to the end of the world while there is still time.

“So desperate is the need by many to focus on the perishable, to engage in that which keeps us on earth, to adapt the message of the gospel to the fashions of the day.” (Machen)

But here in this place, let us by the light of the gospel preached every Lord’s Day move from earth to Zion to come to Christ whose blood speaks a better word than any word in this age. Let us find here a Savior, let us hear, give ear to the glories of God in Christ Jesus, whose grace controls us to the very end. So no matter your trouble no matter your sin, God’s grace is greater. God will not forsake you because you have forsaken him.

The only forsaking that matters

Where are you in this sermon? You are the object of God’s eternal love. You are the object of his giving… that you might serve him now and forever until the end of the world and beyond.

Grave Gate

Let us by faith believe in the blood of Christ and live now and forever in eternal life. And now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, be glory now and forever more. Amen