Gospel-Driven Devotion

Good morning again. First of all, I want to thank Pastor Dan and the elders for the opportunity to come and share with you this morning. Over the past several months the Lord has beautifully wrecked all of my plans. And had you told me 6 months ago, that we’d be having this little talk, I’d have said you were nuts. But here we are, and I’m excited to see how the Lord continues to work not only in my family’s life, but also in the life of the church.

In fact, speaking of how the Lord works, it’s really interesting, because Pastor Dan and I didn’t discuss what he would be preaching on last week, and he didn’t assign me a particular topic he wanted me to preach on this morning. But where he left off is a perfect launching off point for what we’ll be exploring together this morning.

He was preaching on Jesus’ prayer from Luke 23:34 when Jesus was on the Cross. He prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He was praying for his enemies. Those who were literally in the process of killing him.

So before we jump in, I want to take just a minute to recap a couple of the points he made last week, which will kind of set the table for us this morning.

The main take-away was that while Jesus prayed that the Father forgive his enemies, there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood.

Under the old covenant, the people of Israel were commanded to make a sacrifice in the form of a spotless lamb who’s life would be given as a substitute in place of their own lives as payment for their sins.

But now, Jesus, God in the flesh, had come to make final payment for all sins past, present and future, by offering himself as that perfect sacrifice. The spotless Lamb of God, who would come and take away the sins of the world (verse reference).

So we talked about how in Acts 2, we see how God answered Jesus’ prayer after Peter preached to those who actually participated in demanding Jesus’ crucifixion. They were cut to the heart, asked what they must do to be saved, repented of their sin, were baptized, and counted as being added to the church.

It’s this piece that I want to dial into a little bit, as it really provides context how we ought to respond, not only as individual sinners, confronted by the weight of our sin, and the extravagant and costly grace of God, but also as the local expression of Jesus’ church in this time and place.

First, we’re going to begin by looking at the response of Peter’s hearers, after their conversion. But then we’ll back up, and put ourselves in their shoes, to show why they responded the way they did.

So please turn with me to Acts chapter 2. We’ll be picking up in verse 42.

Now, while you’re turning there, just a quick side note. Over the past two thousand years since Jesus walked the Earth, there have been a lot of people who have claimed to represent Him. And so we have some churches who believe and do things one way and then you've got other churches who believe and do things differently, and even if you’ve grown up in the Church, all the nuanced differences can be very confusing, can’t they?

When you look at the church, when you look at religion, it’s easy to scratch your head and say man, what is the truth? Out of the literally thousands of denominations, who’s right?? Well, the good news is that God has given us his word so that we would know the truth. As I mentioned, this morning we’ll be looking at the book of Acts. It’s a continuation of Luke’s gospel, and picks up from a historian’s perspective how things unfolded after Jesus’ resurrection. The author was literally looking at what was happening, and writing it down. So we don’t have to guess about either the message that was being preached, or how the church functioned. It’s all right here. So let’s read.

Acts Chapter 2 starting in Verse 42.

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:42–47.

So here, we see several elements that marked the life of the first church:

They Devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching

To the Fellowship

They devoted themselves to Prayer

And to Serving the needs of one another - at a cost to themselves for sure, but with generous hearts.

They gathered corporately, all together, in the temple

And they were Breaking bread in their homes.

Now, obviously this isn’t an exhaustive list of everything the first church was doing. And as the church grew, it required more organization so that the needs of the people were met. We read about that several chapters later when the first deacons are appointed. But still, it doesn’t talk here about the order of service when they met in the temple. Did they open with 3 songs, or 4? Did they only sing the Pslams, or did they sing contemporary 1st century music? It doesn’t say. The point here is to paint a zoomed out picture of what the daily life of the church looked like.

As a result, today we have the luxury of looking back at the first church through the author’s eye witness account, and if what we’re experiencing doesn’t match up, we’re able to reform things to be in alignment with scripture.

But what’s always been fascinating to me is what compelled this group of people to behave in this way. What I mean is, there was no benchmark, no church model they could look at that would provide a template for how they should function. They just did. Something happened in their lives, and this is how they responded. They were doing what came natural, except that none of these things are natural. They were totally counter-cultural.

What kind of person, let alone a growing group of people, sells their possessions to meet the needs of others? What group of people devotes themselves to teaching like this? In our culture there are many reasons someone would join a church. But a lot of those reasons didn’t exist back then. This is a remarkable community. So what happened to these people that caused them to respond in this way.

Well, if we back up a few verses, we find out.

But before we do that, I want to provide a little more context and explain the backdrop of what was going on. We know at this point that Jesus had been hung on a criminal’s cross to the point of death, He was buried, and was resurrected the third day. Over the course of the following 40 days, he appeared to the Apostles along with five hundred other witnesses. During this time, he promises that they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and tells them not to leave Jerusalem until they do.

Now, all of this is happening against the backdrop of the Feast of Pentecost. This was one of the “temple feasts” when devout Jews were supposed to travel to the Temple in Jerusalem.

In part, it was a celebration that commemorates Moses’ receiving of the Law from God on Mount Sinai.

So the believers are gathered together for the feast of Pentecost in Jerusalem, and at the same time devout Jews from many other nations also gathered in the city. You could think of it kind of like the Olympics pre-Covid. You have this major event, where people from all over the world, form different ethnicities and tongues, are gathered in a particular place for a common purpose. Except, instead of being there to celebrate athletic achievement, these people have come to celebrate God delivering the 10 Commandments to Moses with their first fruits.

The timing is interesting isn’t it? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

So, in addition to offering their first fruit offerings, the Jews are there celebrating the giving of the Law to Moses. Meanwhile the sinless Christ had lived, been crucified among them, and then raised from the dead proving himself to be God and fulfilling the demands of the law. So while they’re there celebrating the Law being delivered. What has really been happening is that the Law was fulfilled in their midst. The church is born, and in God’s providence and timing, they’re all assembled for the celebration.

But we’re not quite at the celebration part yet. As Pastor Dan unpacked for us last week, there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood.

Now, while it wasn’t the main focus, Part of the multi-week Pentecost festival included animal sacrifice.

In the Old Testament the fundamental purpose of animal sacrifice is to obtain forgiveness of sins. The devout Jewish people who were listening to Peter were well acquainted with this practice. The substitutionary nature of the sacrifices is especially evident on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16), which was a day once a year when the sins of Israel were atoned for. Hands would be laid on the animal to signify that the animal functioned as a substitute for the person, and their sin was transferred to the animal. The violent death of the animal signifies the penalty human beings deserve for their sin.

Again, I’m just trying to help you understand the background of those who Peter was preaching to, so we can get an idea of why they responded so radically to his message.

The point is, those devoted Jewish hearers of Peter’s sermon knew they were under the law of Moses. They were there to celebrate this fact. They also knew they were sinners, and try as they may, were unable to keep the law. Further, they understood that a substitutionary atonement must be made to cleanse them of their sin.

But they also knew that one day a Messiah would come. A Savior would come who would conquer sin and the grave. They were familiar with the prophet Isaiah and the rest of the scriptures explaining of the coming Messiah.

So when Peter reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, showing Jesus to be the Messiah, they were “cut to the heart”.

So backing up a bit to verse 36, where Peter finishes his sermon, prior to the response we read about in verse 42, he says:

“Let all the house of Israel therefore 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 cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you 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 for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” Acts 2:36–41.

What Peter was doing was showing them that in Jesus’ death, that he endured at their own hands, complete and permanent forgiveness of sins was secured. That Jesus was the Messiah, who’s coming had long been prophesied.

When the Holy Spirit turned the lights on in the hearts & minds of Peter’s hearers, their response was to beg the question of what they must do in order to be saved. They knew they were sinners. They were in Jerusalem celebrating God giving the Law to Moses, and making sacrifice for their inability to keep it. But now they just realized that they had literally just killed the Messiah themselves.

When Peter told them there was a way out, that their sins, including that one, could be forgiven, they received his words with joy, turned from their sin, and were baptized.

Then, the very next verse reads:

“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers…” Acts 2:42

So the response of this community wasn’t about adopting a template for church growth, it was a response to the gospel. They loved each other because Christ first loved them. In 1st John 4:19, we read that “We love because he first loved us.” How do we know He loves us? Romans 5:8 tells us, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So, now that we have some context to the response of these early Christians, I want to transition in examining how this applies to us today.

While there may be some here who are of Jewish decent, I’d venture to guess most of us aren’t. Regardless, we’re certainly of a different culture than that of the 1st century devout jews Peter was addressing at Pentecost.

While that may be true, we’re similar in other ways, not the least of which is the fact that we’re all sinners in need of a savior. In fact, while the law was given to Moses by God, it’s applicable to all of us, isn’t it. Doesn’t matter whether we’re devoted Jewish men in 1st century Jerusalem, or whether I’m a 40-something year old man living in Kalkaska, Michigan.

God has made his standard clear, and it applies to us, whether we’re familiar with it or not. As Pastor Dan said last week, ignorance of the law is no excuse. I don’t get to blow through a 55 mph zone at 65, and upon getting pulled over, simply explain that I didn’t realize the speed limit had changed. Well, I suppose I could, but it wouldn’t have any bearing on the fact that there’s a fine to be paid.

But God’s law is very different than a city ordinance. We’re not born with a sense that on M-72, the speed limit is 65. Or maybe its 55… I should pay closer attention next time… Either way, Romans 2:15 tells us that God has written His law on our hearts, and given us a conscience, so that when we break God’s law, we know it.

So when we lie, we know it's wrong, right? When we when we cheat or steal, we know it's wrong. Nobody has to tell you that. We have a conscience, don’t we?

That word conscience actually means “with knowledge”, the prefix con means “with” and science, means knowledge. Or at least it used to… I’ll leave that alone… Anyway, when we do these things, when we break the law, we do so with knowledge. There's there's no excuse.

It’s funny, most of the people that I talk to consider themselves to be pretty good people, I mean. All right. So I'm not perfect, but I haven't murdered anybody. I haven't robbed any banks. Honestly, our baseline for what we consider a “good” person is pretty low.

But In Romans 3:12, it tells us that there is none that is good, no, not one.

Actually, let’s read that passage in it’s context. Romans chapter 3, starting in verse 9, Paul writes:

“What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11  no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13  “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14  “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15  “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16  in their paths are ruin and misery, 17  and the way of peace they have not known.” 18  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. Romans 3:9–20.

So we’re all under the law, and the purpose of the law is to stop our mouths from justifying ourselves. While we’ll all profess our own goodness, God doesn’t grade us on a curve. That’s what Paul means when he tells us that one isn’t better off than the other, and that we’re all under sin.

But while we’ve talked a lot about the law, we haven’t looked directly at it to understand what it’s demands are, so let’s do that.

God gave Moses the 10 Commandments on Mount Sinai.

I realize I’m in a Baptist church, so most of us are pretty familiar with this, but one of those commandments is thou shalt not lie. Rather than asking you to raise your hand if you’ve ever told a lie, maybe the more interesting request would be to raise your hand if you have never told a lie.

Right. We all have. We’re all guilty. And the truth is you don’t have to tell a hundred lies to be a liar. In the same way that you don’t have to kill a hundred people to be labled a murderer

Next up. You shall not steal. Ever taken anything that wasn't yours, stick a gum. Sticky notes from work? If it wasn't yours and you took it. It's stealing, right? So have you ever done that? Ok. Guilty. Don’t lie.

Jesus in the sermon on the Mount, “You’ve heard it said of old that thou shalt not commit adultery, but I tell you that whosoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart. We've gone there, haven’t we? All of us. We can’t claim innocence here, can we?

Thou shalt not murder. Hopefully most of you are breathing a sigh of relief. Ok, good. Well I haven’t done that one.

Oh but wait. Jesus again, he says, “you've heard it said thou shalt not murder.“ But then he continues, “whoever has been angry with his brother in his heart. Is liable of judgment.” And so what he's saying is that murder, starts in the heart. If there was no hatred, if there's no anger, resentment, these types of things in our hearts, there would be no murder. And so Jesus saying, I know you, I see your thought life, I see your heart and it’s far from me, and it’s full of all kinds of wickedness.

So if we’re being honest, and we’ve only looked at 4 of God’s laws, we’re all a bunch of lying, thieving, adulterous murderers at heart, and when God judges us by this standard, are we innocent or guilty? Of course. We’re guilty.

That’s the purpose of the law. To show us that we’re all lawbreakers. None of us are innocent. We can never be good enough. Just like the jewish people to whom Peter was preaching, so we too are guilty, and the consequences of our lawbreaking - the wages of our sin, is death.

But the good news is that while it is true that the wages of sin is death, the second half of that verse is also true. That the gift of God is eternal life.

So, Jesus comes as that unblemished lamb. Perfect and sinless. He fulfills the law on our behalf. He lives the perfect life that we could never possibly live. Then, as our substitute, he takes our sin upon himself, and suffers and dies in our place. He dies the death that we deserved.

When we fully grasp this. When we understand who we are before a Holy God. When we understand the depravity of our state before him. When we’re “cut to the heart” and cry out, what must I do to be saved? When we understand the steep cost Jesus paid in order to pay for our sin - that he was slaughtered in our place, and has made a way for us… When we humble ourselves before King Jesus, repent, and turn from our sin, when we put on Christ, entrusting our souls to him in the same way a paratrooper entrusts his life to a parachute… When we experience forgiveness of all our sins - past, present and future… Washed clean by the blood of the lamb…

When we understand that now when Holy God looks upon us, he no longer sees our unrighteousness, but instead, he see’s us clothed in Christ’s righteousness… The weight of our sin has been removed. The old has gone, and behold all things are made new...

When we truly understand these things, we will have the same response as Peter’s hearers. Great joy. We’ll love others even when they don’t deserve it. Not so much because we’re commanded to, although we are, but because we don’t deserve it, and yet we were shown unmerited love to the point of death.

We’ll be willing to serve one another. We’ll begin to resemble those early believers described in Acts. Serving one another with glad and generous hearts. Why? Not because we’re trying to artificially model ourselves after the early church. But because we’re blood bought sinners overcome by extravagant grace. And we love because he first loved us.

So, my hope this morning is two-fold:

First, if you’re here this morning, and you’re still living under the weight of your sin, that you would come to Jesus. Maybe you’ve been attending church your whole life. You know all the Bible stories, but you’ve never truly repented of your sin and received Jesus as your savior. Perhaps you’re striving to earn favor with him by serving in all the church activities - not out of a love response to the gospel, but because it’s what good a Christian is supposed to do...

Or maybe this is the first time you’re hearing this and while you still may have a lot of questions, feel this morning as you’ve been cut to the heart.

Either way, as Paul said, one isn’t better than the other. We’re all under sin apart from Christ. Wherever you are, I would invite you to lay down the heavy burden of your sin, and turn to Jesus as your only hope for salvation. It’s a free gift.

Second, for those of us who have been regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit, who have been made alive with Christ, who have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness, and are walking with the Lord. That we would remember our first love. That we would find a renewed spirit of gospel-driven devotion to the Lord and His church. That we would serve one another not from a place of religious duty, but instead from a glad and generous hearts in response to the love we’ve been shown in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Please bow your heads and pray with me, and then we’ll close by singing once again to Jesus messiah - the rescue for sinners.