A Question With An Eternal Answer

FEBRUARY 13, 2022 STUDY NOTES ACTS 2:37-38 BIBLE TEACHER: CLIFTON JONES A QUESTION WITH AN ETERNAL ANSWER INTRODUCTION Peter had answered the question of the crowd, Act 2:12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? They wanted to know what was happening on this particular-Day of Pentecost Peter told them that the promise of Jesus to send the Holy Spirit had been fulfilled The Holy Spirit had come just as Jesus had promised, because Jesus had ascended to the Father Jesus had ascended back to the Father because of who He was, He was their Promised Messiah Peter stood before them and preached the truth of Jesus the Messiah, “Jesus is the Christ” Which resulted in another question, “What shall we do?” A most important question because it has an eternal answer As a Christian our life should be lived in such a way that people would ask us, “what shall I do?” Our daily life should present the truth of a life “In-Christ,” and cause others to ask about our life Sermons preached should result in people asking, “what shall we do? A sermon that presents the truth of sin and salvation should result in a decision time A congregation must allow the Holy Spirit to apply those truths to their hearts And when the invitation time comes, the congregation should ask, “what shall we do?” WHAT SHALL WE DO? Act 2:37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? When they heard the words of Peter, the message he had just preached to them (Acts 2:14-36) They had heard the sermon and the conclusion of Peter’s sermon, Act 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. “They were pricked in their heart,” Peter’s message penetrated-into their heart The words of Peter cut deeply into their hearts and brought conviction upon their soul His words were the truth of Jesus, which we find in the Bible today, which we must use today When we present the truth of Jesus from the Bible, the Holy Spirit will fulfill His ministry Sinners must be convicted of their sin before they will call upon Jesus for salvation In the modern church of today there is the danger of easy believe-ism An agreement with what someone said, and ask you to say without a conviction of heart Saying a prayer without any conviction of sin which results in no change of life, 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. People join churches without uniting in Christ and continue to live the same life they have lived Not so on the Day of Pentecost, they heard Peter’s sermon and were “pricked in their heart” Peter’s sermon was the “Word of God,” Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Their conviction was the evidence of the coming of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus had promised, Joh 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you Page 1 of 5 Jesus begins with an emphasis upon His words, “I tell you the truth” Which calls for their utmost attention, the truth He speaks is of utmost importance It was “expedient” for them, good for them, to their advantage, for their benefit When Jesus said, “I go away,” He spoke of His death, burial, resurrection, and Ascension All of which was also for our benefit, there would be no salvation unless Jesus went away If there was no death on the cross, if there was no burial in the tomb (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) If there was no resurrection from the dead, and no Ascension back to God the Father There would be no “Good News” for lost, Hell-bound sinners, or no Gospel of salvation And there is another truth to what Jesus is saying, “the Comforter will not come unto you” There are two great truths within those words: If I go away, the Comforter is going to come And there is a reason why He is going to come, He is going to come “unto you” Which is also found within the title, “Comforter,” He comes along side to help Some translations read, “Counselor,” which has the thought of a legal assistant One who would plead for a cause or present a case, that One is the Holy Spirit Jesus would send the Holy Spirit after He departed, after He completed the work of redemption The Holy Spirit would then fulfill His work upon the earth, which would be a new ministry As Peter preached the Holy Spirit fulfilled His present earthly ministry toward the lost That which Jesus said He would do, Joh 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: “He” is none other than the Holy Spirit himself, who has now come in a unique ministry He now has a unique ministry to the world who does not believe in Jesus “He will reprove the world of sin,” reprove means to expose the facts, to convince of the truth The Holy Spirit works in the mind of the sinner to show them the truth of sin and salvation He will convince the heart of the sinner that God is right, and they are wrong concerning sin He will convince you that you are in the wrong, the problem is “your sin” He will prove to you that you are in the wrong, “you are the sinner” There are only two kinds of people upon earth: Those who stand before God in their sin, the lost And those who stand before God in the righteousness of Christ, the saved (Romans 3:22) Notice that “sin” is singular, not “sins” plural, because of our “sin” we commit “sins” A sinner can quit any particular-sin and change their way of living and clean up their life But they are still lost in their sin, spiritually separated from God, and on their way to Hell People do not go to Hell because of their sins, but because they reject Jesus the Savior, Mat 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus is the only one who can save you from sin, Act 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. People go to heaven because they have received Jesus and been cleansed by His blood, Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Jesus said the Holy Spirit will reprove the world of sin, “and of righteousness” You would think that the verse would read “convict of unrighteousness” Unrighteousness has to do with sins, plural, which man alone can do nothing about Sinners can make some changes and quit certain sins, but will not be righteous before God The Holy Spirit tells us the truth about righteousness, telling us what God says, Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: God’s standard is “righteousness” and there is no religious way unto God’s “righteousness,” Tit 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Because of God’s standard of righteousness, sin must be judged That is why God sent His Son into this world, that is why Jesus went to the cross Page 2 of 5 Only Jesus was “right” before God and only through Jesus can we become “right before God,” Rom 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience (ADAM) many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one (JESUS) shall many be made righteous. Sinners must believe in and receive Jesus in-order to be forgiven of sin and be saved Salvation is being saved from “sin,” Joh 16:9 Of sin, because they believe not on me; Again, the word “sin” is singular, referring to a specific sin, the one sin that condemns us The Holy Spirit convicts the lost of their sin by pointing them toward the righteousness of Jesus The lost sinner will never be convicted of sin until their heart is turned to Jesus by the Holy Spirit Sinners will turn their life over to Jesus when they realize they can do nothing about their sin Their only hope is to trust in Jesus, to believe in Jesus, to receive Jesus (Romans 10:9-10; 13) The Holy Spirit will convince them that Jesus is the only one who can forgive you of your sin The Spirit will convince them that there is only one way to stand righteous before God, Joh 16:10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; The Holy Spirit will reveal the truth of the self-righteousness of the sinner There is none righteous, no, not one, righteousness before God is only in and through Jesus And there is only one way for the unrighteous sinner to be made righteous before God It was for Jesus to go the Father following His death, burial, resurrection, and Ascension Jesus sent the Spirit after He had fulfilled all righteousness and paid the price of redemption There is no redemption apart from judgment, Jesus on the cross became the judge The Holy Spirit will convince us that what Jesus said is true, Joh 16:11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged. Jesus has previously said, “I tell you the truth,” He now tells us the truth concerning judgment The truth of where judgment must begin, the judgment of Satan’s control over sinful mankind Satan is the one who rules in the heart of those who are still in their sin of unbelief Scripture identifies Satan by many different names and titles, we must know the truth of Satan The many names and titles given to Satan tell us something about who he is and what he does His names and symbols tell us what he desires to do to all of mankind through his power Jesus said, he is the prince of this world, “prince” means “chief” or “ruler” Satan rules in the hearts of the wicked and worldly and wants to rule the Christian “World” means an ordered system of evil which is separated from God and opposed to God Today, Satan seeks to rule the world of business, education, government, and pleasure He seeks to rule over a sinful society, and he wants to take control of the Church His desire is to rule in the hearts of worldly or religious people and turn them to wickedness He is the “god of this age,” which refers to “a system of philosophy” (2 Corinthians 4:4) It refers to thoughts, opinions, speculations, impulses, aims, hopes, and goals that go against God It expresses a man-centered manner of life that is against the will of God Which is the way of things in our world today, in the time-period that we are now living It is known as the “evil age,” this present age is evil because of the work of the evil one The evil one, the wicked one, who wants to be as God, which takes us back to his beginning We first find him as Lucifer, the name means “shining one” or “light bearer” It is the name given to him at creation, he was a powerful angel in God’s original creation “Lucifer” refers to Satan in his original state before his rebellion against God The fall of Lucifer was the beginning of sin in the universe (Isaiah 14:12) Lucifer was the character of light before he became the darkness of sin “Satan” is one of his common names in the Bible, used to refer to the one who is opposing God In the N.T. “Satan” is a personal name which means, adversary, hater, accuser (2 Cor. 2:11) We may not know all that Satan is going to do, but we know that he is going to do something “Devil” is another common title used many times, it means slanderer, accuser, deceiver The devil deceives the whole world, the devil is the “accuser of the brethren” Page 3 of 5 He works in many “crafty” ways, and they are all “evil” Christians must resist the devil and take a firm stand against him (Ephesians 6:11) Don’t give him a chance to work in your life “The tempter” is the devil, he is the one who tempted Eve, he also tempted Jesus Paul was sure that the devil will tempt believers today (1 Thessalonians 3:5) Satan will put us to the test for the purpose of disapproval (James 1:14) He wants us to fall into sin and hopes that we will be disapproved in the sight of God “Beelzebub” was the name of the Philistine god of flies, also called “lord of the manure pile” The name that designates Satan as the ruler of the demons, chief of the demons (Matthew 12:24) Satan is identified as the one who is wicked, Satan is identified as the one who is evil He is intrinsically wicked, and he is not satisfied with being corrupt in himself He seeks to corrupt others with him, he is the source of all evil and wickedness in the world He is also known as “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2) Satan is the ruler of an unseen, well organized system, you only see the evidence of that system He is the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the atmospheric region between earth and heaven The domain of Satan is a kingdom that centers in the atmosphere of the earth Satan reigns over an empire of fallen angels and sinful mankind Christians are in a daily battle against Satan and his demons, the power of the air He is called an “angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) This description of Satan has to do with his moral character and how he presents himself Satan does not come to us as Satan, he does not identify what he presents to us as sin What he suggests himself to be on the surface is not true, it is a lie He can make his ideas seem attractive, he appeals to the eyes and ears He can make sin and evil sound good and look good, the way of the advertising world today Those who carry on his works are known as “his servants” and they use his methods He is known as the father of lies and a murderer (John 8:44) Murder has been in his heart since his fall, “he was a murderer from the beginning” Death is his goal for all mankind, physical, spiritual, and eternal He lied to Eve about death, he said, “you shalt not surely die” (Genesis 3) Jesus said, “there is no truth in him, he is a liar” Peter gave the devil the title of “a roaring Lion,” (1 Peter 5:8) He is power hungry he is looking for a prey to devour He is constantly on the prowl, and he won’t miss a chance to devour you The word translated “devour” was used to describe an animal swallowing down its prey It pictures the prey of a wild animal being gulped down one bite at a time Peter tells us to be spiritually prepared, be spiritually minded, be spiritually alert “Dragon” is a description of Satan that is found only in the book of Revelation In Revelation the “dragon” is presented as the chief enemy of God and His people The word translated “dragon” means “a huge serpent” or “sea monster” He is a destructive beast, he seeks to destroy Christ and His followers The emphasis is upon his fierce nature in conflict, he is ferocious in his attacks against believers Revelation 12 is the chapter known as the “Conflict of the Ages” The “Conflict of the Ages” is because God has a plan and Satan has a plan Satan is called the dragon, (Rev 12:4,7) the great dragon, (12:9) a great red dragon (12:3) The dragon will be cast into the abyss for a thousand years and then the eternal lake of fire Another title for Satan found in Revelation is “old serpent” (Rev. 12:9, 14-15; 20:2) A “serpent” is a snake, Satan is identified as “that ancient Serpent” who is the Devil and Satan This takes us back to the first reference of Satan in the Bible The “old serpent” has been around a long-time deceiving people Page 4 of 5 He will continue his work of deceiving people until Christ returns He is well known and well experienced and his activities will increase upon earth In Revelation we find that Satan is given a name in the Hebrew, which is “ABADDON” He is also given a name in the Greek, which is “APOLLYON” (Revelation 9:11) Both-of the names mean “DESTROYER” He will destroy physical life, he will destroy spiritual life This one called “Destroyer” is the exact opposite of the one who is called “Savior” Satan must be defeated, Satan will be defeated, Satan can be defeated today Which brings us back to the question of the crowd, “what shall we do?” The question that all sinners must ask, Peter gives the answer that all sinners must hear CONCLUSION Consider the question, “what shall we do?” Consider it this way, “What must I do?” Then you know that you have listened to the truth of Jesus and the Spirit has spoken to your heart There are many examples in scripture, when John the Baptist preached, Luk 3:10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? When Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road, Act 9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? The Philippian jailer, Act 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Have you ever personally and honestly come before Christ and asked, “What should I do?” With the desire to allow God to do what He alone can do within your life. What can God do in your life, consider the song you are going to hear. Page 5 of 5