Grounded in the Gospel

INTRODUCTION

Close your eyes for a moment and imagine a world without anything that you would call “the church.” No historic buildings, spires, steeples. No popes, no celebrity internet pastors, no public gathering events. No kids’ ministries, no men’s and women’s ministries, no outreach programs or christian organizations, no hint of a culture that defines popularly what we say or do. It’s just you, the book you brought with you this morning, and the account a person named Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus has taken hold of your life, he’s captivated you, or at the very least intrigued you, and you start following him and his teachings, his way of life, all of these promises he’s made. And as you look around, suddenly you discover you are not alone, that there are others like you that have started following this Jesus as well. There’s an excitement in the air, a camaraderie that has emerged, as this new and different community has risen up almost out of nowhere. But then, this question arises: what happens next? Where do we go from here?

This is the question we are seeking ask as we work through our series, Great Grace. We are walking through several passages in the book of Acts and explore the story of the church from its origins. The goal here is to uncover the core truths, the ancient practices of the church that define the nature of who we are, who this counter-cultural society of people is.

PRAY

Our passage this morning comes from Acts 2:14-41. Jesus has just gone into heaven, and before he does, Jesus tells them that they will be witnesses, but first, the Holy Spirit of God will descend upon them and birth a new people. So the rest of Acts chapter 1 is just the disciples… waiting. They sit, they pray, they wait, they pray. And then, suddenly, a new era dawns. Since this is where the story of God’s church begins, we have to begin here as well. Before we go forward into the amazing story of God’s people, how they shared, how they spoke, how they loved, the events of Pentecost orient our direction. And it boils down to this: The church is the gospel personified in community. The gospel is what makes the church, and the church makes visible the gospel.

WHAT IS THE GOSPEL?

Now, maybe that doesn’t surprise you, and maybe you aren’t concerned about that part of the church. It should be obvious, right? Of course we are a church that preaches and believes in the gospel of Jesus!

But there are two things we need to be honest about. First: What actually is the gospel? I have a feeling that if I were to ask 10 people in this room, I might get 10 different answers. And that’s because for all we talk about good news and the gospel of Jesus, for all we celebrate it and pray about it and proclaim that we have it, we don’t explain it nearly as often enough, we don’t define it well. My hope is that our time today begins to shape how we talk about that gospel message.

Second, if the gospel is so important, than it is my conviction that the very life of the church should be an outworking of gospel in everything that we are and say and do. However we organize and act and gather ought to be connected and thought through in relationship to the message of the gospel in the Bible and its expression through the church.

Peter’s sermon in Acts chapter 2 is perhaps the greatest account of the gospel message in the entirety of Scripture. And today I am citing Dr. Gerry Breshears of Western Seminary who teaches a class on the gospel in our Cultivate Leadership Training. According to our passage today, the gospel has three parts, and each one matters to the good message we need to hear.

REVELATION: GOD WORKS (Acts 2:14-36)

First, Revelation: God works. The very first part of the gospel message is nothing that we do, nothing that we get, but it is about who God is and how he works.

Acts 2:14–22 CSB

Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed to them, “Fellow Jews and all you residents of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and pay attention to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it’s only nine in the morning. On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all people; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. I will even pour out my Spirit on my servants in those days, both men and women and they will prophesy. I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below: blood and fire and a cloud of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. “Fellow Israelites, listen to these words: This Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know.

Stop right there for a moment. What’s going on? The disciples were waiting for God to work, and suddenly this violent rushing wind blows open the doors of the house they are in and swirls about them, and these flames of fire rest upon each one of them, and they start speaking in various languages of all the people around them. Every nation under heaven is gathered in Jerusalem, Jews from every corner of the earth, and all of them hear, what? Magnificent acts of God. They testify to what they have seen and heard God do. A diverse people of different languages and culture are united around the common language of the Spirit and the rule of the One God.

God moves, we follow. That’s the routine, that’s the rhythm of the church. The second we try to anticipate God’s moves, or preempt God, or get impatient with God’s timing, we stop participating in the gospel dynamics the way the church was built around.

Everyone hears, and many are amazed, but some doubt. They think everyone is just drunk. So Peter stands up and gives a correction. Listen everyone , it’s 9am, we’re not drunk. This has been planned for some time now; don’t forget what Joel said 800 years ago:

I will pour out my Spirit on all people (who is the actor? Who is the recipient?)

Sons and daughters will prophesy, young men will see visions, old men will dream dreams.

I will pour out my Spirit on my servants, both men and women.

I will display wonders in haven and signs on earth, blood and fire and a cloud of smoke (Exodus 19-20 covenant language)

What is Peter saying? Jesus is the Son of God. And as God’s son, he comes to the world as the rightful king in order to save the world, not to condemn it, not to destroy it, but to save it. He draws near to the world, benevolent, good. He transforms lives; those signs and wonders? He feeds the hungry, he heals the sick, he restores sight to the blind and makes lame walk, he raises the dead. All of those signs point to the reality of Jesus having authority over the physical realm and the spiritual realm. It reveals who Jesus is and what kind of King he is. His power is not for destruction, but for rescue.

Acts 2:23–31 CSB

Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death. For David says of him: I saw the Lord ever before me; because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices. Moreover, my flesh will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me in Hades or allow your holy one to see decay. You have revealed the paths of life to me; you will fill me with gladness in your presence. “Brothers and sisters, I can confidently speak to you about the patriarch David: He is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah: He was not abandoned in Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.

Despite all that Jesus reveals, as the Son of God, the King over all, He was crucified and killed. Now, wait a second, God doesn’t do that, we do that, right? How is that the gospel, if God didn’t do it? Jesus was crucified by us right? What does it say? Whose plan was it that Jesus be crucified? Yeah, God’s plan. Yes, humans bear the responsibility of killing Jesus, and we will see the guilt and shame that we feel. But Jesus’s death was planned all along. This was God’s perfect plan at work.

Then what happens? God raised him up, ending the pains of death. Peter says this too was part of God’s plan the whole time. The ancient king David, who was really good worship leader back in his day, sang this song about how there would be a king whose flesh would not experience decay, who would not be abandoned, but would raised up in life. Peter says, that’s Jesus. That’s what he was talking about the whole time.

Jesus was crucified according to God’s perfect plan. Jesus was resurrected, raised to new life, according to God’s perfect plan. God’s at work.

Acts 2:32–36 CSB

“God has raised this Jesus; we are all witnesses of this. Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says: The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

God has put Jesus in charge, and he is on a mission to overwhelm the forces of this world who call themselves enemies of God. How does he intend to accomplish this mission? Peter now gets to the point of what everyone sees around them, why all these Galileans are walking around with flames of fire on their head and speaking in dozens of languages they have no familiarity with. Jesus has poured out the Holy Spirit on his followers, and as they speak of God’s work, the powers of darkness are overcome by the light of Christ.

Now, I know I’ve used up most of my time today just talking about what God does, but this is important: very often, when we talk about the gospel, our attention goes to what I get. How I benefit. Or, it focuses on what I do. I have faith, I invited Jesus into my heart, I gave my life to Jesus, I live a life that is pleasing to him. Those are all parts of the gospel, but they are secondary to the primary, which is that it’s not about who you are or what you do, or what you get. It’s about who Jesus is and what he has done. The movement of the church is directly tied to how God moves first. Jesus reveals who he is; we respond to that. Jesus works powerfully according to God’s plans; we respond to that. But there’s an implication to our understanding as a gospel-centered church. We need to spend more time beholding than we do behaving. Let’s allow the Story of Christ to shape the rhythms and ways of the community, built around the work of God, reminding and remembering and pointing to him at every turn.

RESPONSE: WE CONFESS (Acts 2:37-38)

Now, even as I say that, the story is not over, meaning the gospel message is not yet complete. First is the Revelation: God works. Second, is our Response: how we confess the reality of what we have seen and heard. Our testimony, our witness. If the part one is what God does, part two is what we do in response to God doing.

Acts 2:37–38 CSB

When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Okay, what’s the response? Remember, God shows up, that’s the first act of the gospel. The second act is what we do after God shows up.

They were pierced to the heart. That’s conviction. Conviction is an awareness that I have a problem; my eyes have been opened to the reality of something I had not seen before, and now that I have, it exposes every part of me, it lays me bear before the world. Conviction stops you in your tracks, brings you to your knees, flips the switch from darkness to light. Conviction stirs up something inside that says that something has to change.

“Brothers, what should we do?” That’s confession. Confession is the movement of truth from the heart to the mouth. It is speaking from the heart about what I need. Look at the people’s response here. There is personal responsibility, there is guilt and shame. Even though Peter said it was God’s plan for his Son to die, they acknowledge their part in the plan. Jesus would not have to die if they had not been so proud, so arrogant, so self-centered. Jesus would not have to come and save them if they had not been faithful to their God. Confession is just saying, It’s on me, I can’t keep doing what I’m doing, so what can I do? I need help!

Repent and be baptized. This is what Peter says is needed when the people confess. Repent, and be baptized. This is it. This is the final movement of our activity. We repent; we turn toward God. One thing that Dr. Breshears notes about repentance, and I find this super important, is that repentance is an act of turning—the Hebrew word literally means to turn. But what are turning from? From bad behavior to good behavior? No, that’s a byproduct, that’s effect of a life aligned with God, but it’s not what is required of us to be saved. It’s turning from ourselves, from our pursuits of this world, to God and his pursuits. And, we are baptized, we declare publically that our lives are no longer ours, but are God’s, because he has saved us, he has rescued us, and he has given us life.

Conviction, Confession, Repentance. These are the rhythms of the Gospel-Centered Church. We tell the story of God, we are convicted by the story of God, we confess the nature of our selves, and we turn to him, ready to align with his ways and follow him to the ends of the earth.

Let me tell you this. If as the church, we are having a hard time committing to a rhythm of conviction, confession, and repentance, or even if we are just struggling to figure out why we do what we do, and we’re just bogged down by routine and ruts, I’d suggest these are symptoms of a bigger issue. If the story we are telling about God does not compel us to action, perhaps we are telling the wrong story. That story might be self-help-ism, or individualism, or personal empowerment-ism, it might be comforting, it might be funny, but it might not be the story of God. Whatever story we do tell will ultimately shape the action of our church, the rhythms that we align with, the goals that we pursue.

If we are getting stuck figuring out where to go, what to do, how to work out our story as the church, perhaps we are starting with the wrong story, the wrong legacy, the wrong gospel. What makes the church more than a club or a school is the nature of the gospel, affecting who we are and what we do, bringing about beautiful, grace filled moments of surrender, which lead to...

RESULT: EVERYTHING CHANGES (Acts 2:38-41)

Revelation, Response, and Result. The result? Everything changes. Let’s finish our gospel account:

Acts 2:38–41 CSB

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each 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, as many as the Lord our God will call.” With many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them.

God shows, the people respond. What do the people receive? What do they get? Forgiveness of sins, a cleansing of the guilt and shame, and release from the burden they are carrying. Freedom. And the gift of the Holy Spirit. The very presence of God living within you, empowering you, God moving in you and through you, changing you, transforming you from the inside out.

The greatest benefit you can receive from Gospel-Centered Church is not a feeling of commonality, though you will find that here. It’s not a sense of purpose, though I hope you find that here. It’s not a superior moral integrity. It’s the relief that Jesus offers you from weight of sin and death, being loved and being made clean from stains you thought damaged you. And it’s the filling of God’s Spirit, expelling darkness, bearing fruit, growing love and peace and joy and gentleness from within.

Sometimes there is an over-focus of the gospel on what you receive. One of the most common gospel messages you hear is this: I am a bad person and going to hell, but if I ask Jesus into my heart, I get to go to heaven and see my friends and family and be doted on for eternity. Heaven’s Gates or Hell’s Flames, you get to choose. Notice, the story of Jesus barely fits into that at all. In that gospel, I’m the hero, and Jesus is merely a side character, a divine companion that helps me reach my potential. It’s not that there isn’t truth to some of this. If you seek to live life on your own terms without Jesus, you will crumble under the weight, the stain of sin will mark you, and you will be destroyed. With Jesus, you will have life, eternity will be in your sights. But if my focus is only on what I get, then I will constantly adjust and adapt my Christianity and my church based on the benefits, and when it longer meets my needs or fits my worldview, I’m outta there.

The gospel is about finding out God’s story is THE STORY, about his rule and reign. It’s stops my story cold, it cuts me to the quick, and when I turn to Jesus, he graciously welcomes me into his story, fills me with his life, and allows me to live out his story with him. That’s the heart of the church. That’s where we start, and that’s where we end. If at any point what we do points anywhere but the gospel, if we move without God moving, if our response to God or to one another is not bathed in conviction, confession, and repentance, and if our hope is anything other than forgiveness and the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence within us, we have missed the mark. May it all come down the good new of God.

PRAY

COMMUNION PASSAGE:

1 Corinthians 15:1–4 CSB

Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,